^e  MASK  of  M 
CHRISTIAN  SCIENC 


LIBRARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 

PRINCETON,    N.    J. 
PRESENTED    BY 

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The  Mask  of 


Christian  Science 


A  History  of  the  Rise  and  Growth  of  the  System,  together 

with  a  comparison  of  Metaphysical  Healing  with 

Matters  Scientific,  Christian  and  Biblical. 


By 

Francis  Edward  Marsten,  D.D. 

Author  of 
The  Freedom  of  Christ,  Songs  of  Life,  etc. 


AMERICAN     TRACT     SOCIETY 
150      NASSAU      STREET,       NEW      YORK 


B  101927' 


COPYRIGHT,     1909, 
BY  AMERICAN    TRACT    SOCIETY. 


SUBJECT  INDEX 

Foreword 


The  Woman  and  the  Prophet 

Birth  and  ancestry.  Early  life.  Imitating  Jesus  at  twelve 
years  of  age.  Mesmer.  Parallels  in  Shakerism.  Mar- 
riage. Second  marriage.  Dr.  Quimby.  Germs  of  the 
new  religion.     Domestic  life 15 

The  Woman  and  the  Book 

Wanderings.  The  first  practitioner.  A  lawsuit. 
Quimby  manuscripts.  "Science  and  Health"  pub- 
lished. Third  marriage.  Confusing  dates.  A  miracu- 
lous" cure.     A  fictitious  revelation      ....      32 

A  Mask  for  Commerce  and  Glory- 
Christian  Science  not  Christian.  Not  scientific.  A 
travesty  on  Christianity,  yet  a  power.  Doctoring  the 
book.  Autocratic  rule.  Instructions  to  healers.  Incon- 
sistencies. "Science"  dietetics.  Influence  over  life  and 
death.  The  "Metaphysical  College."  "Put  money  in 
thy  purse."     Material  prosperity 48 

Antagonisms  of  "Science" 

Old  methods  outgrown.  Mermerism.  Clairvoyance. 
Spiritualism.  Faith  Cure.  Contradictions  and  absurdi- 
ties. "Scientific"  experiments.  Mental  surgery.  A 
bunion  and  insanity.    Eternal  youth    ....      65 

Power  of  Mind  Over  Body 

Christian  Science  doctrines  not  new.  No  sin,  sick- 
ness, or  death.  Exorcising  disease.  A  boast  not  ful- 
filled. Metaphysical  healing.  The  healer  healed.  The 
Emmanuel  Movement 7© 

The  Philosophy  of  Christian  Science 

Forerunners.  Gnostic  vagaries.  Neo-Platonism. 
Gnosticism  defined.  Agreement  with  "Science." 
Burned-out   torches.     Socrates,   Plato,    Plotinus.     Jo- 


Subject  Index 

anna  Southcott.  The  Comforter,  Christian  Science. 
The  real  and  the  unreal.  Metaphysics.  Pantheism  and 
Theism 93 

Bible  Verities  and  Christian  Science  Vaporings 

Parallels  and  divergencies.  How  Jesus  healed.  The 
Bible  does  not  deny  sin.  God  defined.  Matter  not  real. 
Jesus  called  it  real.  Mrs.  Eddy  improving  on  Paul. 
Christ's  "seeming"  death.  The  doctrine  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.     The   resurrection 108 

The  Last  Supper,  Prayer,  and  Marriage 

"Science"  mystic  and  conflicting.  Substituting  for  the 
last  supper  the  last  breakfast.  Audible  prayer  of  no 
avail.  The  Lord's  Prayer.  Mrs.  Eddy's  amendment. 
Prayer  to  principle  as  God.  Doctrine  of  marriage.  A 
menace  to  social  well-being.  Agamogenesis.  Mrs. 
Eddy  taken  at  her  word.  The  rock  of  Holy  Scriptures. 
"Science"  on  heredity 121 

The  "Key" 

"In  the  beginning."  God— Elohim.  Exegesis  accord- 
ing to  Mrs.  Eddy.  God  does  not  know  matter.  God  is 
everything.  Explanation  of  ignorance.  The  second 
chapter  of  Genesis.     The  Apocalypse  explained        .     139 

Conflict  with  Medicine  and  Law 

The  challenge.  The  boast  of  Christian  Science.  The 
first  plank.  A  cult  of  negation.  Lack  of  understand- 
ing in  curing  the  sick.  A  pat  definition.  Cure  of  con- 
sumption. A  touch  of  madness.  A  medley.  Strange 
statements.  A  victim  to  "Science."  A  lawyer's  testi- 
mony as  to  Christian  Science 153 

The  Mask  of  Delusion 

Delusion  in  the  face  of  experience.  Mrs.  Eddy  close 
to  Deity.  Under  the  mask.  Scientific  works  not  to  be 
read.  Prevarication.  Deification.  Self-deluded.  A 
grave  danger 171 

The  Mask  Withdrawn 

A  lost  faith.  Vaunted  cures.  Under  the  spell.  A 
shattered  dream.  The  awaking.  The  world's  need. 
Some  other  way 181 


FOREWORD. 

According  to  some  a  new  religion  was  born  in  the 
closing  years  of  the  nineteenth  century.     It  has  its 
prophet,  its  revelation,  its  church  and  its  form  of  wor- 
ship.    It  has  also  a  name.     This  name  it  wears  as  a 
mask,    concealing    its    real    identity.      Catching    the 
aroma  of  the  advanced  thought  of  the  age,  with  keen 
knowledge  of  human  nature  learned  in  years  of  ob- 
scurity and  adversity,  its  founder  drew  the  name  from 
two  sources.     For  well-nigh  two  thousand  years  the  A  "New 
Western  world  has  hidden  in  its  inmost  heart  the  say-  Rellslon" 
ing,  "Thou  hast  given  Him  a  name  which  is  above 
every  name."     Above   every  name   in  the  range   of 
human  thought  soars  the  name  of  Jesus,  the  Christ. 
Another  name  that  has  become  mighty  in  the  sphere 
of  intellect  is  science.     The  founder  of  this  extraordi- 
nary system,  where  faggots  of  falsehoods  are  tied  up 
in  bundles  of  absurdities,  mused  within  herself,  and 
by  the  candle  of  the  mystic  coined  the  term  "Meta- 
physical Healing,"  which  she  afterward  called  "Chris- 
tian  Science."     With  wily  words  and  catch  phrases 
culled  from  Holy  Writ  and  the  vocabulary  of  science, 
she  made  a  bid  for  disciples  from  among  the  children 
of  light  and  the  kingdom  of  the  world.    Success  came. 
The   thing  thus   evolved   has   stayed   these   years,   al- 
though "Christian   Science,"   as   a  system,  is  neither 
Christian  nor  scientific,  except  in  name. 

5 


6  Foreword 

This  cult  declares  that  man's  life  upon  earth  is  a 
dream;  all  the  world  is  nothing,  and  God  is  every- 
thing. Hence  there  is  no  real  body,  and  forms  of 
matter  are  but  passing  shadows.  Yet  the  head  of  this 
marvelous  system  stoutly  reiterates  that  she  does  not 
teach  Pantheism.  In  these  so-called  revelations  the 
sweet  and  sacred  tenets  of  the  New  Testament  are 
interwoven  with  fantastic  and  crude  dogmas  savoring 
of  the  occult  and  mystic  East,  and  curious  "isms" 
struggle  for  recognition  along  with  the  ethics  of  Jesus. 
Similar  manifestations  of  strange  philosophies  and  re- 
ligions trooped  in  swarms  around  the  early  Christian 
Church.  One  was  Gnosticism,  another  Neo-Platon- 
ism.  The  latter  nurtured  within  its  bosom  devotees 
of  magic,  theosophy  and  mysticism.  Some  of  the 
early  sects  claimed  special  illumination  and  power  to 
work  miracles.  Denying  the  testimony  of  the  senses, 
they  fell  into  all  sorts  of  sensual  excesses.  Social  and 
intellectual  characteristics  marking  that  period  are  re- 
peated in  our  own.  Hypnotism,  Mesmerism,  Spirit- 
ualism, Theosophy,  Mind  Healing  and  Christian  Sci- 
ence are  all  manifestations  of  the  same  spirit  of  curi- 
ous unrest.  Christian  Science  teaches  its  disciples  to 
deny  the  testimony  of  the  senses. 

Something  about  the  teaching  of  the  book,  "Science 
and  Health,"  has  captivated  certain  types  of  men  and 
women.  There  must  be  intrinsic  good  in  it,  and  some 
kernels  of  wheat  among  all  its  chaff.  What  may  be 
said  in  its  favor?  What  is  the  nugget  of  truth  that 
gives  it  its  attractiveness? 

In  the  first  place  it  is  a  protest  against  the  bald  ma- 


Foreword  7 

terialism  of  our  times.  Men  need  to  be  reminded  that 
the  seen  is  only  temporal,  and  that  God  "has  set 
eternity"  in  the  hearts  of  his  children.  If  Christian 
Science,  though  it  may  be  a  fleeting  fad,  on  account 
of  its  aspirational  nature  helps  to  fix  the  thought  on 
the  all-sufficiency  of  God  and  His  eternal  verities,  it 
may  fulfil  a  mission.  Men  have  said  of  it,  "Not  only 
was  my  body  healed,  but  my  soul  was  lifted  into  a 
nobler  spiritual  attitude." 

It  is  also  a  protest  against  the  agnostic's  ignorance 
of  his  Maker.  Sad  is  his  boast  of  a  civilization  with- 
out hope  and  without  God  in  the  middle  of  it.  In 
spite  of  its  tangle  of  errors  and  inconsistencies,  Chris- 
tian Science  does  at  least  set  forth  the  immanence  of 
God  in  human  heart  and  life.  The  healing  of  the  hurt 
of  the  body,  loudly  heralded  as  it  is,  is  not  the  only, 
nor  perhaps  the  greatest,  factor  about  this  system.  A 
gravely  important  practical  bearing  of  these  tenets  lies 
in  the  fact  that  they  are  a  constant  rebuke  to  the  god 
of  Worry,  that  scowling  menace  to  the  peace  of  hu- 
man life.  They  presume  to  furnish  the  world  with  an 
incentive  to  do  just  what  Jesus,  when  we  understand 
Him  aright,  would  have  us  do;  that  is,  to  live  with  a 
tranquil  mind,  without  malice,  without  envy,  without 
fretting,  and  without  anxiety.  Has  the  Christian 
Church  lost  the  spirit  of  His  invitation,  "Take  my 
yoke  upon  you  and  learn  of  me,  and  ye  shall  find  rest 
unto  your  souls"? 

It  means  just  this  blessed  tranquillity.  Herein  is 
the  secret  of  success  of  Christian  Science  in  its  at- 
tempt   at    habit-sculpturing    and    character-formation. 


8  Foreword 

If  we  only  believed  Christ  and  His  ability  to  help  us, 
we  should  live  without  the  unrest  that  makes  carking 
care  the  curse  and  despoiler  of  human  existence.  We 
are  told  that  the  peculiar  opinions  represented  in  "Sci- 
ence and  Health"  have  done  wonders  for  those  accept- 
ing them.  Mind  is  exalted  over  matter  and  the  peace 
of  the  Infinite  comes  to  dwell  in  the  human  soul.  These 
views  of  Christian  Science,  it  is  affirmed,  do  not  de- 
stroy one  fundamental  article  of  Christian  faith,  but 
add  to  it  the  elements  of  peace  and  strength  that  make 
the  soul  free.  Speech  is  also  made  about  the  solar 
radiance  and  peace  imprinted  on  the  "mortal  face"  of 
those  trusting  in  these  precepts. 

This  new  religion  takes  such  parts  of  the  Word  of 
God  as  it  pleases  to  appropriate,  and  ignores  or  denies 
those  passages  that  oppose  its  teachings.  It  denies  sin 
and  consequently  impeaches  the  authority  of  the 
Decalogue.  Opposite  the  copyright  page  stands  this 
motto  from  Shakespeare,  "There  is  nothing  either 
good  or  bad,  but  thinking  makes  it  so."  Froude,  the 
historian,  liked  Hamlet's  speech  so  well  that  he  gave 
it  an  anarchistic  twist,  subversive  of  the  authority  of 
the  Decalogue  and  much  else,  to  which  Carlyle  replied 
its  Evil  -n  jjjs  trenchant  way,  "Such  reasoning  will  result  in 

anarchy  and  broken  heads!"  To  those  in  "Science," 
marriage  is  not  well  thought  of,  and  motherhood,  at 
least  by  implication,  has  lost  its  sacredness,  as  moral- 
ity may  be  preserved,  when  "time  matures,"  and  the 
highest  relationships  exist  between  the  sexes  outside 
of  the  marriage  bond.  If  it  is  only  thinking  makes  it 
so,  what  prevents  the  home  being  doomed  and  all  the 


Foreword  g 

wild  beasts  of  the  sensual  lair  let  loose  upon  society? 

Much  of  this  attempt  at  a  new  religious  develop- 
ment deals  with  questions  of  health  and  healing. 
Physicians  are  ignored  except  in  certain  instances. 
The  healer  of  this  cult  is  called  a  "practitioner."  His 
treatment  is  supposed  to  be  purely  mental.  So  far 
the  "practitioner"  has  rejected  all  responsibility  to 
both  the  State  and  his  patient.  Yet  he  does  not  re- 
lease the  patient  from  paying  fat  fees,  and  shows  no 
scruples  of  conscience  in  accepting  them.  All  is  mind, 
and  there  is  no  matter,  according  to  Christian  Science, 
consequently  there  can  be  no  such  things  as  sickness, 
pain,  and  disease. 

Both  Science  and  Theology  have  acknowledged  that 
the  powers  of  mind  over  matter  reach  beyond  mortal 
ken.  No  human  thinker  has  ever  traveled  to  the  limits 
of  psychology  and  mental  philosophy.  Men  who  have 
sought  to  use  mental  force  to  control  physical  condi- 
tions outside  of  themselves  have  sometimes  been  re- 
garded as  saints  and  sometimes  as  charlatans.  Those 
who  have  used  it  to  expel  disease  have  by  no  means 
always  been  conscious  cheats.  Incantations,  charms 
and  medicine-makings  have  been  resorted  to  by  savage 
and  semi-savage  priests,  and  often  with  results  quite 
marvelous.  But  these  crude  and  rude  therapeutic 
methods  do  not  differ  more  widely  from  the  approved 
practice  of  the  accredited  medical  schools  than  do  the 
methods  of  Christian  Science. 

The  advocates  of  this  astonishing  code,  bristling 
with  self-contradictions,  and  unsatisfactory  from  its 
poverty  of  ideas,  invite  men  to  accept  their  cult  on 


io  Foreword 

the  ground  that  belief  in  it,  and  even  the  reading  of 
the  Eddy  book,  frees  the  body  from  all  sickness  and 
pain  and  the  soul  from  all  moral  responsibility. 

Christian  Science  is  a  metaphysical  system.  With 
great  presumption  it  professes  to  interpret  the  philoso- 
phy of  life  as  taught  by  Jesus,  and  to  supplement  and 
complete  His  redemption.  It  arrogates  to  itself  power 
to  free  men  from  that  mighty  trio,  sin,  sickness,  and 
death.  Infatuation  bordering  on  blasphemy  meets  the 
devout  at  almost  every  turn  of  the  page,  and  leads 
him  to  exclaim  in  the  words  of  the  Psalmist:  "Keep 
back  thy  servant  from  presumptuous  sins."  There  is 
great  adroitness  in  wresting  Scripture  to  make  it  fit 
the  peculiar  needs  of  "Science."  The  founder  of  the 
sect  asserts  a  profound  belief  in  the  ethical  and  spir- 
itual foundations  of  the  Gospel.  Love  is  the  note  most 
often  sounded,  apart  from  bodily  healing,  and  its  ad- 
herents represent  to  the  world  that  their  chief  purpose 
is  to  abide  in  faith,  hope,  charity. 

Notwithstanding  that  the  nomenclature  of  Christian 
thinking  is  adopted  to  a  great  extent  in  the  text-book 
of  the  cult,  "Science  and  Health,"  there  is  a  pitiable, 
vagueness  of  expression.  The  amended  editions  have 
hardly  improved  in  this  respect,  but  have  rather  grown 
more  vague.  The  evident  motive  appears  to  be  to 
make  statements  of  anything  approaching  to  dogma 
or  doctrine  so  misty  and  intangible  as  to  render  them 
incapable  of  comparison  with  systematic  and  scientific 
statements  of  belief.  Thus  they  challenge  any  criti- 
cism, and  declare  that  the  interpretation  you  may  put 
upon  a  certain  passage  is  incorrect ;  you  do  not  under- 


Foreword  n 

stand  it.  But  they  are  careful  not  to  give  the  critic 
any  advantage  by  telling  what  it  does  mean.  Yet  the 
whole  system  is  encircled  in  a  Christian  atmosphere. 
Ask  a  Christian  Scientist  to  tell  you  what  God  is,  and 
you  may  find  a  typical  answer  in  ''Science  and  Health." 
"God,"  it  says,  "is  supreme ;  is  Mind ;  is  Principle ;  not 
person;  includes  all  and  is  reflected  by  all  that  is  real 
and  eternal."  This  book  also  affirms  that  "The  only 
divine  realities  are  the  divine  mind  and  its  ideas." 

Looked  at  from  one  angle,  Christian  Science  teaches 
obedience  to  moral  obligations,  obedience  to  the  civil 
law,  and  the  performance  of  all  works  of  righteous- 
ness, sweetness  and  purity.  On  the  other  hand,  re- 
ligious platitudes  abound,  and  in  carrying  out  their 
aims  and  purposes,  subterfuge  and  falsehood  bear 
witness  to  the  incongruity  between  profession  and 
practice.  The  Christian  student  hails  with  delight  all 
appearance  of  adherence  to  Gospel  doctrine,  but  when 
utterances  are  made  that  contradict  the  Bible  he  would 
like  to  have  them  explained  and  put  in  a  light,  if  pos- 
sible, that  will  show  their  consistency  with  Gospel 
truth.  But  here  evasion  comes  in.  On  these  contra- 
dictory points  no  discussion  can  be  elicited.  It  is  either 
utter  silence,  or  the  oft-repeated  assertion,  "Oh,  you 
do  not  understand  us.  You  do  not  take  us  in  the  way 
we  mean."  "You  do  not  understand  'Mother,'  "  is  a 
very  common  expression  that  falls  from  their  lips. 

A  just  estimate  of  this  new  system  of  religion,  or  a 
metaphysical  school  of  healing,  shows  that  it  is  a  mask 
worn  over  the  face  of  experience,  consciously  or  un- 
consciously, and  hiding  from  view  both  fact  and  real- 


Mask 


12  Foreword 

ity.  It  has  taken  one  phase  of  the  Redeemer's  Life, 
and  that  not  the  supreme  one,  and  exalted  it  to  the 
highest;  it  has  misstated  the  position  and  doctrines  of 
the  Christian  Church  and  made  of  evangelical  faith  a 
caricature  and  travesty.  In  place  of  the  personal  God, 
the  infinite,  loving,  sympathetic  Father,  who  knows 
and  feels  for  His  children,  it  substitutes  a  principle, 
an  attribute,  and  a  virtue.  It  draws  the  mystical  dis- 
tinction between  person  and  individual,  which,  if  not 
a  mere  idle  fancy,  is  at  least  too  metaphysical  for  the 
average  human  brain  to  understand.  But  let  pardon 
be  craved,  brain  is  "mythology,  illusion" ;  mind  is 
"deity  mortal" ;  mind  is  "mythology,"  "nothing  claim- 
ing to  be  something."  May  the  idea  that  struggles  for 
expression  here  be  put  in  this  way?  Mortal  mind, 
nothing,  expresses  nothing  to  nothing ;  or  Mind,  which 
is  deity,  expresses  something  to  deity,  but  the  same  is 
so  far  above  human  comprehension  that  the  language 
of  deity — Mrs.  Eddy — cannot  be  understood  by  it. 

In  preparing  this  volume  the  writer  has  visited  the 
scenes  and  places  in  New  England  connected  with 
Mrs.  Eddy's  life  and  work,  and  talked  with  many  inti- 
mate with  the  rise  and  growth  of  Christian  Science. 
He  also  desires  to  acknowledge  his  indebtedness  to  the 
following  works  and  authors,  many  of  whom  are 
quoted  in  these  pages : 

"History  of  the  Christian  Church,"  Philip  Schaff, 
D.  D.;  "A  Short  History  of  the  Christian  Church," 
Moncrieff;  "History  of  Dogma,"  Harnack;  "History 
of  Philosophy,"  Julius  Seeley ;  Philosophical  Works  of 
Prof.  Borden  P.  Bowne  of  Boston  and  Prof.  James 


Foreword  13 

of  Harvard  University;  W.  H.  Keen,  M.  D.;  O.  W. 
Holmes,  M.  D. ;  and  Doctor  Brown-Sequard.  Also 
to  the  following  writers  on  different  phases  of  the 
Christian  Science  Movement :  William  A.  Purrington, 
J.  M.  Buckley,  LL.  D.,  William  H.  Muldoon,  Wm. 
Peabody,  Miss  G.  Milmine,  Frank  Podmore,  and  to 
McClwrc's  Magazine,  The  Contemporary  Review,  the 
Brooklyn  Eagle,  The  British  Medical  Journal,'  and 
others. 


One  Christ,  one  Way,  one  Light  divine 
Is  given  in  every  age  to  shine: 
The  Lord  and  Master  of  the  race, 
The  sun-road  for  our  feet  to  trace, 
The  path  that  from  the  earth's  green  sod 
Leads  upward  to  the  throne  of  God. 

Take  heed  that  no  man  deceive  you.  For  many  shall  come 
in  my  name,  saying,  I  am  Christ;  and  shall  deceive  many. 
.    .    .    But  the  end  is  not  yet.— Matt.  24 : 4-6. 


The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

CHAPTER  I. 
THE  WOMAN  AND  THE  PROPHET 

The  founder  of  Christian  Science,  Mrs.  Mary  Baker  Birth  and 
G.  Eddy,  was  born  at  Bow,  near  Concord,  New  Ancestry 
Hampshire,  July  16,  1821.  For  some  reason  the  date 
of  her  birth  has  been  kept  out  of  the  stories  of  her 
life  and  biographical  cyclopedias.  With  her  origin 
and  early  childhood  tradition  has  already  been  taking 
liberties,  and  jumbled  fact  and  fable  in  grotesque 
combination.  It  has  traced  her  ancestry  to  David's 
line,  and  has  surrounded  her  family  with  the  aristo- 
cratic halo  of  a  distinguished  Scotch  patrician  house. 
But  the  plain  fact  is  that  there  was  no  mystery  about 
her  birth  or  about  her  Yankee  ancestry  for  six  or 
seven  generations  of  New  England  life. 

Her  father  and  mother  were  humble,  everyday  peo- 
ple. She  was  the  youngest  child  of  Mark  Baker  and 
Abigail  Barnard  Ambrose.  The  hilly  farm  which  has 
since  been  exalted  into  a  Christian  Science  shrine  was 
cultivated  by  her  father  and  grandfather.  On  both  the 
Baker  and  the  Ambrose  side  of  the  house  for  genera- 

15 


1 6  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

tions  there  was  the  good  old  New  England  type  oi 
plain  farmer  folk,  stern,  with  a  certain  kind  of  piety, 
but  honest,  "with  as  honest  eyes  as  ever  looked  into  a 
milking  pail  or  on  a  huckleberry  bush."  Her  mothei 
was  a  sweet,  gentle,  devoted  soul,  finding  her  joy  in 
her  church  (the  family  were  Congregationalists)  and 
in  neighborly  ministries  that  made  for  peace  and 
heavenly  inspiration. 

The  father,  Mark  Baker,  was  a  man  to  be  reckoned 
with.  He  had  a  strong  individuality,  and  heredity  did 
much  in  the  transmission  of  certain  vivid  and  sharply 
defined  characteristics  from  the  father  to  the  daugh- 
ter, destined  to  a  world-wide  celebrity.  Mark  lived  a1 
Bow  till  1836,  and  from  1836  until  1865,  tne  time  oi 
his  death,  at  Tilton,  New  Hampshire;  in  both  places 
he  is  remembered  for  his  strong  and  eccentric  per- 
sonality. His  gray  eyes,  looking  out  from  a  well- 
poised  head  that  crowned  his  big,  bony  frame,  his  higli 
forehead  and  firm-locked  jaws,  and  his  acrid  criti- 
cisms, are  still  well  remembered.  He  had  a  fiery  tem- 
per, was  close-fisted,  and  none  was  sharper  in  driving 
a  bargain.  He  never  cheated ;  his  integrity  was  his 
pride.  He  trained  his  children  in  the  fear,  nurture 
and  admonition  of  the  Lord,  and  went  to  church  regu- 
larly on  Sunday.  The  farm,  the  family,  politics  and 
religion  were  the  horizon  of  his  life.  In  the  war  oi 
the  Rebellion  he  was  a  Copperhead;  he  thought  the 
"niggers"  were  made  to  be  slaves;  he  hated  Lincoln 
and  it  is  said  that  when  told  the  news  of  his  assassi- 
nation he  shouted  in  his  gruff  and  terrible  voice,  "I'm 
glad  on  it!"     He  quarreled  with  the  minister,  whc 


The  Woman  and  the  Prophet  17 

was  a  good  Republican  and  preached  patriotic  ser- 
mons, and  made  himself  as  disagreeable  as  possible  by 
getting  up  when  any  passage  in  the  sermon  offended 
his  stubborn  ignorance  and  prejudice,  stamping  down 
the  aisle  with  his  huge  walking  stick,  and  out  the  door. 
Mark  Baker  transmitted  his  qualities  to  his  children, 
most  of  whom  were  high-tempered  and  headstrong. 
They  were  nearly  all  touched  also  with  a  little  queer- 
ness.  The  men  were  fine  specimens  of  physical  man- 
hood; the  women  were  endowed  with  marked  good 
looks.  Mary  Baker  soon  became  the  village  beauty  at 
Tilton.  Albert  Baker  had  a  college  education,  became 
a  lawyer,  was  associated  with  President  Franklin 
Pierce,  entered  politics,  and  was  a  man  of  rising  fame 
and  large  ability  when  he  died  at  the  early  age  of 
thirty-one. 

Mary  Baker  lived  on  the  lonely,  isolated  farm  at 
Bow  until  she  was  fifteen.  After  the  family  moved  to  Early  Life 
Tilton  she  attended  school  there,  grew  to  womanhood, 
married,  and  was  left  a  young  widow.  Rare  beauty 
and  a  strange,  almost  weird  nervousness,  producing 
peculiar  paroxysms,  in  which  temper  and  disease 
seemed  to  struggle  together,  marked  her  childhood 
and  dawning  womanhood.  As  a  child  dainty,  at- 
tractive, and  precocious;  as  a  woman  agile,  lithe,  and 
graceful,  she  had  a  fascinating  individuality.  The 
most  striking  part  of  a  beauty  illumined  by  so  many 
touches  of  loveliness  were  her  large  gray  eyes;  her 
susceptibilities  and  aspirations  spoke  through  them, 
and  when  in  anger  they  burned  like  black  coals  emit- 
ting sparks.    Those  eyes  have  been  of  magnetic  and 


18  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

impelling  force  all  her  life,  helping  powerfully  to 
weave  around  the  men  and  women  she  would  influence 
the  spell  of  her  imperious  will.  For  such  a  woman 
strong  men  have  taken  up  arms  and  championed  her 
cause  unto  death.  Yet  so  hysterical  and  nervous  was 
she  and  so  subject  to  convulsions,  that  the  neighbors 
said  she  had  "fits,"  and  when  flashes  of  temper  ac- 
companied them,  the  uncharitable  referred  to  them  as 
Mary  Baker's  "tantrums."  Even  her  old  father 
deemed  her  possessed,  not  of  seven,  but  of  ten  devils. 
She  was  certainly  an  interesting  girl,  and  no  wonder 
the  spiritualists,  abounding  in  New  England,  after- 
ward claimed  her  as  a  medium.  Mrs.  Eddy  herself 
writes  of  her  childhood  : 

"For  some  twelve  months,  when  I  was  about  eight 
years  old,  I  repeatedly  heard  a  voice  calling  me  dis- 
tinctly by  name  three  times  in  an  ascending  scale.  I 
thought  this  was  my  mother's  voice,  and  sometimes 
went  to  her,  beseeching  her  to  tell  me  what  she 
wanted."  Then  she  relates  that  her  mother  told  her 
the  Scriptural  story  of  Samuel  and  directed  that  when 
she  heard  the  voice  again  she  should  reply:  "Speak, 
Lord,  for  thy  servant  heareth."  As  the  result  of  fol- 
lowing the  advice,  she  says :  "When  the  call  came 
again,  I  did  answer,  in  the  words  of  Samuel,  but  never 
again  to  material  senses  was  that  mysterious  call  audi- 
bly repeated." 

Like  Christ,  at  twelve  years  of  age,  if  one  credits 
her  story,  she  debated  with  the  elders  of  the  Church. 
She  does  not  draw  therefrom  any  inferences;  "Sci- 
entists" have  done  it  for  her.  She  tells  how  she  was 


The  Woman  and  the  Prophet  19 

received  into  the  Congregational  Church  at  Tilton  at 
that  time  and  how  she  made  the  minister  and  the  dea- 
cons all  cry  by  her  earnest  words.  But  the  official 
record  of  that  reception  into  church  membership  was 
on  July  26,  1838,  consequently  Mary  was  then  seven- 
teen years  old.  A  lapse  of  memory  may,  moreover, 
be  pardoned  her,  only  the  parallel  between  herself  and 
our  divine  Lord  falls  to  the  ground.  In  other  points, 
also,  she  has  made  misstatements  in  her  official  biogra- 
phy, declaring  in  "Retrospection  and  Introspection" 
her  family  descent  from  the  McNeils  of  Edinburgh. 
Their  coat  of  arms  she  uses,  although  the  family  have 
expressly  repudiated  her  claims,  and  she  has  herself, 
after  the  publication  of  the  refutation  on  the  other  side 
of  the  water  in  Great  Britain,  told  her  Christian  Sci- 
ence followers  not  to  connect  her  in  the  future  with  the 
Scotch  McNeils.  Yet  it  is  somewhat  painfully  signifi- 
cant that  the  statement  in  her  book  has  remained  un- 
corrected in  subsequent  editions. 

In  all  New  England  towns  during  her  youth,  Mes-  Mesmer 
mer's  name  was  well  known.  A  girl  who  loved  mys- 
tery as  Mary  Baker  did  must  have  been  greatly  im- 
pressed with  what  she  heard  of  mesmerism,  spiritual- 
ism, clairvoyance,  and  mind  reading.  "Charles 
Poyen,"  says  Georgine  Milmine,  "a  French  disciple  of 
Mesmer,  was  a  household  word."  Poyen  in  1837  Pu^" 
lished  a  book  on  "Animal  Magnetism  in  New  Eng- 
land." According  to  this  work  he  visited  and  lectured 
in  many  of  the  towns  where  Mrs.  Eddy  spent  her 
early  days.  "At  that  moment,"  says  Poyen,  "animal 
magnetism  indisputably   constituted,  in  several  parts 


Parallels    in 


20  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

of  New  England,  the  most  stirring  topic  of  conversa- 
tion among  all  classes  of  society."  He  calls  it  "a 
great  truth,"  "power  of  mind  over  matter,"  a  "demon- 
stration," a  "discovery  given  by  God."  Above  all,  he 
pronounced  it  "science."  Whether  Mrs.  Eddy  ever 
read  this  book  or  saw  Poyen  is  not  known;  the  cir- 
cumstances merely  prove  that  many  of  the  phrases 
with  which  her  name  is  now  associated  were  current 
in  her  youth. 

Another  religious  and  mystical  development  that 
shakerisni  must  have  had  its  influence  on  her  forming  mind  and 
character  was  Ann  Lee's  career.  We  are  not  asserting 
that  there  is  any  close  or  basal  resemblance  between 
the  Shakers  and  Christian  Science ;  but  there  are  a 
few  points  of  striking  similarity  in  the  words  and 
terms  used  by  both  sects.  The  Shakers  spoke  of  Ann 
Lee  as  "the  female  Christ,"  the  "female  principle  of 
God."  We  shall  see  that  Christian  Scientists  have  not 
hesitated  to  make  Airs.  Eddy  equal  to  Christ  in  her 
mission  and  personality.  The  Shakers  plainly  asserted 
that  Ann  Lee  was  greater  than  Christ.  Mrs.  Eddy 
has  herself  said  that  her  revelation  was  "higher, 
clearer,  and  more  permanent"  than  that  given  by  the 
Man  of  Galilee.  The  Shakers  prayed  to  "our  Father 
and  Mother."  Mrs.  Eddy's  amended  Lord's  Prayer, 
spiritually  interpreted,  or  annotated  for  the  enlight- 
enment of  to-day,  reads  in  its  first  line,  "Our  Father- 
Mother  God."  In  the  old  Mother  Church  in  Boston  is 
a  stained  glass  window.  It  represents  the  woman  of 
the  Apocalypse,  clothed  in  the  sun  and  crowned  with 
twelve    stars,     and    is    called     "The     Woman     God 


The  Woman  and  the  Prophet  21 

Crowned,"  while  above  it  is  a  representation  of  the 
book  "Science  and  Health."  The  Shakers  spoke  of 
Ann  Lee  as  the  Woman  of  the  Apocalypse,  and  named 
her  "The  God-anointed  woman." 

Christian  Scientists  call  Mrs.  Eddy  "Mother";  Ann 
Lee  was  addressed  by  the  Shakers  as  "Mother."  '  Both 
these  women  put  out  the  pretension  that  they  had  the 
gift    of    healing.      The    Shakers    believed    that    their 
"Mother"  had  the  divine  illumination  of  the  seer,  the 
gift  of  spiritual  vision.    This  is  exactly  what  Christian 
Scientists  think  of  Mother  Eddy.    The  Shakers  lived 
in   dread  of  the   power  of  Ann   Lee   to   work  them 
harm,  through  her  mental  insight  and  mental  control 
over  them  to  work  punishment  or  exact  justice.     It 
was  a  doctrine  of  the  early  days  of  Christian  Science 
that  Mrs.  Eddy  had  the  power  of  working  evil  on 
others.     "Malicious  animal  magnetism"  is  the  devil  of 
that  sect   at   the  present   time.     The    Shakers   called 
their  denomination  the  Church  of  Christ.     Mrs.  Eddy 
added  to  the  name  of  Christ,  for  the  designation  of  her 
sect,   "The   Church  of  Christ,   Scientist."     Ann   Lee 
forbade  audible  prayer,  so  also  Mrs.  Eddy. 

During  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy's  girlhood  the  very 
atmosphere  of  New  Hampshire  was  filled  with 
mysterious  and  scandalous  charges  about  the  Shakers. 
They  frequently  figured  in  the  courts.  At  least  one 
largely  circulated  book  was  written  purporting  to  ex- 
pose their  iniquitous  ways.  A  girl  of  her  tempera- 
ment must  have  been  eager  to  hear  about  them  and 
doubtless  dreamed  over  the  occult  mystery  of  their 
strange  doings. 


22  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

First  It  was  in   1843,  when  she  was  a  beautiful  girl  of 

Marriage  twenty-two,  that  Mary  Baker  contracted  her  first  mar- 
riage. George  Washington  Glover,  a  manly  young 
New  Englandcr,  was  a  bricklayer,  who  had  worked  at 
his  trade  with  Samuel  Baker,  her  brother,  in  Boston. 
Glover  had  removed  to  Charleston,  South  Carolina. 
"He  was  spared  to  me,"  writes  Mrs.  Eddy  in  her 
book,  "Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  "for  only 
one  brief  year.  He  was  in  Wilmington,  North  Caro- 
lina, when  the  yellow  fever  raged  in  that  city,  and 
was  suddenly  attacked  by  that  insidious  disease,  which 
in  his  case  proved  fatal."  She  was  far  from  home 
and  in  dire  pecuniary  straits.  The  Masons  gave  him 
decent  burial  and  paid  Mrs.  Glover's  fare  to  New 
York.  She  has  never  forgotten  that  experience,  be  it 
said  to  her  honor,  for  while  she  has  prohibited  her  fol- 
lowers from  joining  any  secret  societies,  the  one  ex- 
ception that  stands  out  is  the  Masonic  fraternity.  She 
was  met  at  New  York  by  members  of  the  family  and 
taken  to  the  ancestral  home.  Here  her  son  was  born 
in  September,  1844.  This  was  her  only  child.  She 
called  him  George  Washington,  after  his  father.  For 
ten  years  she  lived  in  lonely,  humdrum,  dependent 
widowhood.  This  period  of  her  life  was  marked  by 
an  aimless  unhappiness.  It  was  a  shadowed  house- 
hold where  age  and  misery  sat  by  the  board. 

We  are  told  that  Mrs.  Glover's  hysterical  attacks 
increased  in  force  with  the  years.  She  was  always  col- 
lapsing. In  fact  her  whole  life  at  this  period  seems 
to  have  been  punctured  with  nervous  collapse.  The 
family  had  to  rock  and  soothe  her  as  they  would  a 


The  Woman  and  the  Prophet  23 

baby.  It  is  said  that  the  father  was  too  old  to  meet 
the  strain  upon  him  from  her  constant  demands  to  be 
rocked  and  cared  for,  so  the  hired  man  was  enlisted 
for  this  task.  This,  to  the  family,  unseemly  perform- i 
ance  was  ended  by  the  building  of  a  picturesque  cradle/ 
with  a  platform  at  one  end,  on  which  the  man  sat,  and^) 
rocking  himself,  rocked  the  cradle  at  the  same  time.      ( 

In  1853  Mrs.  Glover,  cradle  and  all,  was  married  in  second 
the  Baker  home  to  Dr.  Daniel  Patterson,  an  itinerant  Marriage 
dentist.  The  practice  of  mesmerism  and  clairvoyance 
which  she  had  carried  on  in  the  later  years  of  her 
widowhood  had  failed  to  support  her;  nor  was  her 
second  marriage  venture  a  profitable  one  financially. 
Patterson  was  a  good  fellow,  dressed  well,  was  in  fact 
a  handsome  man,  yet  in  those  days  artificial  denture 
was  not  as  lucrative  as  it  has  since  become.  The  doc- 
tor was  most  devoted  to  his  wife.  He  carried  her, 
we  are  told,  up  and  down  stairs,  rocked  the  cradle,  and 
in  the  meantime  tried  to  keep  the  pot  boiling,  the  latter 
with  indifferent  success.  Mrs.  Eddy  has  tried  to  blot 
out  this  period  of  her  life.  Indeed,  Alfred  Farlow, 
with  great  mendacity,  in  his  book,  "Christian  Science 
Historical  Facts,"  has  said  that  Mrs.  Patterson  ob- 
tained a  divorce  on  the  ground  of  adultery.  The  truth 
is  that  the  poor  man  stood  the  strain  and  temper,  the 
cradle  and  hysterics,  until  he  himself  became  a  nerv- 
ous wreck,  when  he  journeyed  to  Tilton,  told  the 
family  he  could  not  exist  longer  in  his  wife's  com- 
panionship, made  some  provision  for  her  support,  and 
practically  dropped  out  of  the  world. 

Mrs.  Eddy  has  sought  to  draw  the  curtain  of  ob- 


24  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

livion  over  these  long  years  of  her  career.  She  refers 
to  her  union  with  Dr.  Patterson  in  these  unhappy 
terms : 

"My  second  marriage  was  very  unfortunate,  and 
from  it  I  was  compelled  to  ask  for  a  bill  of  divorce, 
which  was  granted  to  me  in  the  city  of  Salem,  Massa- 
chusetts. My  dominant  thought  in  marrying  again 
was  to  get  back  my  child.  The  disappointment  which 
followed  was  terrible.  His  stepfather  was  envious; 
and,  although  George  was  a  tender-hearted,  manly 
boy,  he  hated  him  as  much  as  I  loved  him.'' 

In  a  small  work  entitled  "Christian  Science :  An  Ex- 
position," it  is  said  of  this  child  that  he  "at  the  age  of 
four  years  was  sent  away  from  her  and  not  seen  again 
by  her  until,  at  the  age  of  thirty-four,  he  visited  her  in 
Boston."  The  neighbors,  who  well  knew  of  the  whole 
transaction,  declare  that  she  hated  the  boy  and  got  rid 
of  him  as  a  burden  not  to  be  borne  by  her.  Mark 
Baker  said  himself  of  his  daughter :  "Mary  acts  just 
like  an  old  ewe  sheep  that  won't  own  its  lamb.  She 
won't  have  it  near  her."  She  herself  claims :  "A  plot 
was  consummated  to  keep  us  apart.  The  family  to 
whose  care  he  was  committed  very  soon  removed  to 
what  was  then  regarded  as  the  very  Far  West. 
.  .  .  I  was  then  informed  that  my  son  was  lost. 
Every  means  within  my  power  was  employed  to  find 
him,  but  without  success."  She  also  speaks  of  a 
strange  providence  that  informed  him  of  her  where- 
abouts. The  facts  of  the  case  are  that  the  people 
with  whom  he  made  his  home  were  constantly  writing 
back  to  Tilton  and  giving  the  news  of  the  boy  to  their 


The  Woman  and  the  Prophet  25 

friends  there.  It  has  also  been  proved  that  in  1861 
she  received  a  long  letter  from  her  son,  and  in  1865 
she  herself  wrote  a  letter  to  P.  P.  Quimby,  of  Port- 
land, Maine,  in  which  she  tells  about  her  son  being  ill 
at  Enterprise,  Minnesota.  She  claims  to  have  written 
a  poem  after  her  separation  from  the  boy,  one  stanza 
only  of  which  is  extant : 

"Thy  smile  through  tears,  as  sunshine  o'er  the  sea, 

Awoke  new  beauty  in  the  surge's  roll. 
Oh,  life  is  dead,  bereft  of  all  with  thee, 

Star  of  my  earthly  hope,  babe  of  my  soul." 

Here  we  find  the  beginnings  of  some  curious  con- 
tradictions and  misstatements  of  facts  that  run  as  the 
scarlet  thread  of  sin  through  all  Mrs.  Eddy's  works. 
But  a  falsehood,  being  error,  is  nothing.  It  is  only 
an  illusion.  The  reader  will  find  as  he  goes  along 
many  confused  expressions  from  Mrs.  Eddy's  pen  that 
seem  to  be  called  forth  by  the  need  of  meeting  certain 
exigencies  of  life,  circumstance,  or  doctrine.  We 
may  regard  these  things  in  two  ways.  Either  the 
prophet  despises  such  a  thing  as  consistency,  or  she 
forgets  the  positions  once  assumed,  and  so  uncon- 
sciously contradicts  herself. 

In  1862,  while  Dr.  Patterson  was  in  Libby  Prison,  «Doctor„ 
his  wife,  having  heard  of  a  certain  Dr.  Quimby  of  Qu*mby 
Portland,  Maine,  determined  to  visit  him  in  the  hope 
of  once  more  regaining  her  lost  health.     Quimby  was 
no  ordinary  medical  quack.     He  was  neither  a  spirit- 
ualist nor  a  clairvoyant.     He  eschewed   trances,  in- 


26  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

cantations,  and  was  beyond  even  mesmerism.  In  his 
profession  he  claimed  to  heal  and  make  his  patients 
well  and  happy  simply  by  the  benign  power  of  the 
mind.  He  was  an  ignorant  man  who  had  taken  up 
these  occult  studies  and  thought  things  out  for  him- 
self. His  methods  were  in  his  day  unique.  The  edu- 
cated looked  upon  him  as  a  benevolent,  harmless  fa- 
natic, but  his  patients  paid  him  the  homage  due  to  a 
miracle  worker. 

The  finding  of  himself  was  in  Quimby  a  sort  of 
evolution.  When  Poyen,  the  French  disciple  of  Mes- 
mer,  came  to  lecture  in  Belfast,  Maine,  he  appealed  to 
the  intellectual  and  the  mystic  in  the  man.  Quimby 
began  shortly  to  experiment  for  himself.  He  found 
out  that  the  power  of  mesmerism  was  resident  in  him, 
and  as  a  mesmerist  he  won  recognition.  No  matter 
what  the  disease,  he  only  knew  enough,  in  his  occult 
ignorance  of  any  real  principle  of  diagnosis,  to  boldly 
tackle  it.  It  was  a  disease;  it  must  be  cured.  But 
after  some  rather  profound  experience  with  a  clair- 
voyant subject  who  in  the  trance  state  revealed  to 
Quimby  the  symptoms  of  his  patient's  diseases,  he  be- 
gan to  generalize.  From  careful  observation  he  con- 
cluded that  the  patients  were  not  cured  by  the  medi- 
cines, but  by  the  state  of  their  own  minds.  The 
"doctor"  suggested  to  them  the  attitude  and  awoke  the 
faith  in  them  that  they  would  get  well,  and  well  they 
got !  He  made  his  discovery  the  basis  of  an  extended 
and  original  system  of  Mind  Cure.  Intellect  and  mor- 
ality joined  with  a  personality  that  won  love  and  confi- 
dence made  his  Mind  Cure  a  great  success.     Patients 


The  Woman  and  the  Prophet  27 

crowded  his  offices  and  letters  came  to  him  from  all 
over  New  England.  His  cures  were  not  confined  to 
the  ignorant  and  lowly.  People  of  standing  and  edu- 
cation professed  recovery  from  various  grievous 
maladies  under  his  treatment. 

To  this  man  Mrs.  Patterson  went  to  be  cured,  and 
he  rid  her  of  her  nervous  disorders.  For  three  weeks 
she  haunted  his  rooms  and  studied  from  his  many  vol- 
umes of  manuscript.  Hungry  and  empty,  intellectu- 
ally and  spiritually,  Quimby  gave  her  ideas  which  she 
seized  upon  with  avidity.  She  now  had  an  object  in 
life — devotion  to  her  prophet!  She  became  the 
prophet  of  a  prophet.  With  her  singular  zeal,  enthusi- 
asm, and  powers  of  persuasion  she  threw  heart  and 
soul  into  propagating  Quimby's  ideas  and  exalting  his 
personality  until  her  river  of  eloquence  became  a 
stream  of  boredom  to  the  uninitiated. 

One  of  her  letters  reads  in  this  way :    "I  am  to  all  Germs  of  the 

,  ,.    .  ,  ,.    .  New  Religion 

who  see  me  a  living  wonder  and  a  living  monument 
of  your  power."  She  adds :  "I  eat,  drink,  and  am 
merry,  have  no  laws  to  fetter  my  spirit.  Am  as  much 
an  escaped  prisoner  as  my  dear  husband  was." 

For  a  second  time,  in  1864,  Mrs.  Patterson  paid  a 
visit  to  Portland  and  stayed  three  or  four  months. 
Again  she  studied  under  Quimby  and  made  some 
friends,  to  whom  she  was  afterward  very  much  in- 
debted. Absorbed  in  this  peculiar  study,  she  found  the 
innate  cravings  of  her  nature  gratified.  Now  she  be- 
gan to  discover  in  herself  an  active  longing  to  be  a 
teacher  and  practitioner  of  this  "Science."  Little  by 
little  the  feeling,  the  confidence,  and  the  power  grew  in 


28  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

her.  Intimations  of  this  inward  yearning  began  to 
appear  in  her  letters ;  the  spirit  of  the  prophet  was 
rising  in  her.  "I  ought  to  be  perfect,"  she  writes, 
"after  the  command  of  science.  I  want  to  be  like  you, 
good  and  noble,  Doctor."  Her  adulation  of  her  doc- 
tor abounds  in  her  correspondence.  Now  there  runs 
in  her  mind  and  comes  to  the  surface  in  her  written 
messages  the  words  that  were  afterward  to  become 
famous  as  the  shibboleth  of  a  sect — "science,"  "be- 
liefs," "truths,"  "errors."  There  was  a  strange  magic 
about  the  woman,  and  there  was  within  her  dreams  a 
slowly  evolving  idea  that  was  to  lead  her  very  far 
from  those  forty  years  of  humiliation  and  obscurity 
that  formed  the  first  long  stage  of  her  journey. 

Now  she  plunged  into  spiritualism  and  astonished 
her  friends  by  going  into  trances  and  having  spirits  of 
the  departed  speak  through  her.  At  one  of  these  times, 
when  visiting  a  friend,  Mrs.  Crosby,  who  studied  with 
her  in  Quimby's  office,  she  fell  into  a  trance  and  rep- 
resented the  spirit  of  her  brother  Albert,  who,  to  the 
wonderment  of  her  hostess,  warned  her,  through  Mrs. 
Patterson's  own  lips,  not  to  trust  this  ambitious,  wily 
woman,  or  she  would  do  so  to  her  own  peril  and  sor- 
row. Her  high  temper  and  selfish  exactions  made  the 
pathway  of  friendship  perilous  for  her  friends,  and 
her  true  character  found  revelation  through  this  medi- 
umistic  channel,  for  few  were  the  friends  to  whom 
this  strangely  assorted  personality  did  not  bring  the 
sword  of  trouble.  Yet  in  her  the  good  and  the  bad 
were  so  strongly  mingled  that  those  who  could  no 
longer    abide    her    imperious    exactions    remembered 


The  Woman  and  the  Prophet  29 

with  gratitude  what  she  did  for  their  intellectual  and 
spiritual  awakening. 

For  a  long  time  Quimby  was  the  prophet  whom  she 
proclaimed,  and  Mrs.  Eddy  continued  unshaken  in  her 
faith  in  him.  She  believed  that  her  recovery  from 
the  terrible  malady  that  had  worn  her  out  and  sapped 
her  vitality  with  such  terrible  tyranny  was  nothing 
short  of  miraculous.  The  manner  and  method  of  her 
restoration  to  health  she  recounts  with  vivid  and 
lengthy  exactness.  For  herself  she  claims  a  soecial 
revelation  from  God.  In  her  autobiographical 
sketches  she  writes  of  all  these  experiences.  In 
"Retrospection  and  Introspection"  she  says  of  herself 
in  1866:  "I  then  withdrew  from  society  about  three 
years,  to  ponder  my  mission,  to  search  the  Scriptures, 
to  find  the  Science  of  Mind  that  should  take  the 
things  of  God  and  show  them  to  the  creature,  and  re- 
veal the  great  curative  principle — Deity." 

In  this  work,  which  purports  to  be  a  biography, 
with  what  appears  to  be  a  subtle  and  artful  purpose 
she  passes  over  in  silence  some  six  years  of  her  his- 
tory. The  reason  for  this  silence  will  appear  in  sub- 
sequent chapters. 

In  May  of  1864  Mrs.  Patterson  went  to  visit  her  Domestic  Life 
friend  Mrs.  Crosby,  and  remained  at  her  home  until 
the  autumn  of  that  year,  when  she  joined  her  husband 
in  Lynn,  Massacnusetts,  in  which  place  he  had  already 
established  himself  in  his  dental  profession.  His  prac- 
tice was  a  fairly  good  one,  and  people  liked  the  bluff, 
good-natured,  overgrown  boy.  Though  the  doctor  was 
untiring  in  his  efforts  to  please  and  care  for  his  long- 


30  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

time  invalid  wife,  his  devotion  rarely  drew  from  her 
the  smile  of  wifely  approval.  Many  legends  are  ex- 
tant of  her  selfish  exactions,  impatience,  and  fiery, 
hysterical  outbursts  of  temper.  Whatever  the  outside 
world  saw  of  her  charms,  she  evidently  gave  him  the 
worst  side  of  her  hereditary  disposition.  Her  demands 
seemed  without  end  or  reason.  When  the  doctor  was 
at  home  she  compelled  him  to  humor  her  every  whim. 

When  he  was  away  on  his  professional  engage- 
ments, she  was  able  to  care  for  herself  and  walk  up- 
stairs and  down,  but  on  his  return  she  immediately 
lapsed  into  utter  helplessness.  Many  amusing  stories 
are  told  of  her  odd  freaks  and  outbursts  of  anger  at 
the  good-natured  man  in  the  days  before  she  met  the 
Portland  seer  and  learned  of  him  the  secret  of  mind 
cure. 

While  they  were  living  at  the  Russell  home  Patter- 
son deserted  the  woman  and  never  returned.  Those 
who  know  him  say  that  no  word  was  ever  whispered 
against  his  character  either  then  or  subsequently.  His 
spirit  seemed  broken;  indeed  he  never  had  much 
nerve;  and  after  roving  around  for  some  years  he 
drifted  to  his  boyhood  home,  where  he  passed  his  days 
in  hermit  seclusion,  dying  in  1896.  But  Mrs.  Eddy 
has  taken  occasion  to  relate  this  episode  in  her  life, 
coloring  the  narrative  to  suit  her  own  purposes,  be- 
littling her  one-time  husband  and  placing  on  him  the 
brand  of  moral  obliquity  as  well  as  cowardice.  She 
says: 

"In  1862  my  name  was  Patterson ;  my  husband,  Dr. 
Patterson,  a  distinguished  dentist.    After  my  marriage 


The  Woman  and  the  Prophet  31 

I  was  confined  to  my  bed  with  a  severe  illness,  and 
seldom  left  bed  or  room  for  seven  years,  when  I  was 
taken  to  Dr.  Quimby  and  partially  restored.  I  re- 
turned home,  hoping  once  more  to  make  that  home 
happy,  but  only  returned  to  a  new  agony— to  find  my 
husband  had  eloped  with  a  married  woman  from  one 
of  the  wealthy  families  of  that  city,  leaving  no  trace 
saving  his  last  letter  to  us,  wherein  he  wrote:  'I 
hope  some  time  to  be  worthy  of  so  good  a  wife.'  " 

Again  the  prophet  of  sweetness,  light,  and  blessing 
for  humanity  lapses  from  truth,  and  vaguely  clouds 
the  facts  in  a  medley  of  vanity,  selfishness,  and  false- 
hood.   But  why  should  a  prophet  be  consistent? 


Wanderings 


CHAPTER  II. 
THE  WOMAN  AND  THE  BOOK 

At  the  time  of  the  dedication  of  the  Christian  Sci- 
ence Church  at  Concord,  New  Hampshire,  there  ap- 
peared in  the  Plymouth  Record,  from  a  correspondent 
who  lived  among  her  old  friends  and  neighbors  and 
had  opportunity  of  gleaning  the  characteristics  of  the 
prophet's  life  at  first  hand,  this  statement : 

"With  the  announcement  of  the  dedication  of  the 
Christian  Science  Church  at  Concord,  the  gift  of  Mary 
Baker  Glover  Patterson  Eddy,  the  thoughts  of  many 
of  the  older  residents  have  turned  back  to  the  time 
when  Mrs.  Eddy,  as  the  wife  of  Daniel  Patterson, 
lived  in  this  place  (North  Groton).  These  people  re- 
member the  woman  at  that  time  as  one  who  carried 
herself  above  her  fellows.  .  .  .  The  Mrs.  Eddy 
of  to-day  is  not  the  Mrs.  Patterson  of  then,  for  this  is 
a  sort  of  Mr.  Hyde  and  Dr.  Jekyll  case,  and  the 
woman  is  now  credited  with  many  charitable  kindly 
acts." 

After  Doctor  Patterson  left  her  the  woman  was 
desperately  poor.  We  are  told  that  she  went  from 
house  to  house  wherever  any  would  take  her  in,  and 
that  she  made  friends  and  quarreled  with  them  time 
and  again.  From  1864  to  ^7°  was  a  period  of  pro- 
tracted wandering. 

32 


The  Woman  and  the  Book  33 

Her  intimates  at  this  time  were  mostly  spiritualists. 
Besides  living  in  Lynn,  she  visited  Stoughton,  Taun- 
ton, Amesbury,  Swampscott,  Newburyport,  Merri- 
mac,  Avon,  and  Haverhill.  In  all  these  sojourns  she 
made  friends  with  her  fascinating  personality,  and 
then  lost  them  by  her  vindictive  temper  and  thought- 
less requirements.  In  one  instance,  while  at  Taunton, 
Massachusetts,  it  is  stated  that  she  tried  to  persuade 
Hiram  S.  Crafts,  who  had  met  her  at  Lynn,  to  whom 
she  had  taught  the  Quimby  system,  and  who  was  hav- 
ing some  success  in  healing  patients,  to  leave  his  wife 
and  get  a  divorce  simply  because  she  thought  that 
Mrs.  Crafts  hindered  the  success  of  the  partnership 
formed  between  the  teacher  and  her  pupil.  In  this 
she  did  not  succeed.  Mr.  Crafts,  preferring  his  wife 
either  to  Mrs.  Patterson  or  the  practice  of  Mind  Cure, 
gave  up  the  whole  business,  and  the  family  moved 
away. 

Wherever  she  went  Mrs.  Eddy  sang  the  praises  of 
Dr.  Quimby.  In  sweetest,  gentlest  tones  she  was  wont 
to  say,  on  all  occasions  when  discourse  on  her  idol 
was  possible — for  it  was  her  habit  to  talk  continually 
of  mind  and  matter — "I  learned  this  from  Dr.  Quimby, 
and  he  made  me  promise  to  teach  at  least  two  persons 
before  I  die." 

In  the  summer  of  1870  Mrs.  Eddy  returned  to  Lynn. 
It  was  here  that  she  began  the  role  of  a  successful 
prophet,  and  in  this  career  we  will  follow  her.  First 
she  will  appear  as  the  prophet  of  Phineas  Parkhurst 
Quimby,  heralding  his  gospel  and  trumpeting  his 
praise.     She  will   draw  around  her  converts   to  his 


34  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

doctrine  and  teach  them  diligently  from  his  manu- 
scripts that  have  come  into  her  possession.  Then,  in 
the  evolution  of  her  peculiar  mind  and  in  the  growth 
of  a  large  self-consciousness,  she  will  throw  off  alle- 
giance to  her  master  and  stand  forth  as  the  peculiar 
favorite  of  heaven,  yea,  as  a  veritable  anointed  one. 
In  her  hand  she  will  carry — for  a  price — the  Holy 
Comforter,  Christian  Science,  which  she  will  claim 
has  been  taught  her  not  of  man,  but  in  direct  revela- 
tion, by  God  himself. 

As  the  prophet  of  a  prophet,  up  to  1870  Mrs.  Pat- 
terson had  had  but  indifferent  success.  She  had  rev- 
The  First  erenced  her  teacher  and  made  no  concealment  of  her 
Practitioner  ar(ior  for  him.  Hiram  S.  Crafts  was  the  only  poor 
apology  of  a  disciple  she  had  converted  to  her  prac- 
tice, and  he,  through  her  own  overreaching,  had  gone 
back  on  her.  On  her  return  to  Lynn  she  did  two 
things.  She  found  a  subject  whose  receptive  mind 
and  bent  of  character  made  him  a  willing  co-worker 
with  her  in  her  chosen  field,  then  she  bent  herself  dili- 
gently to  the  completion  of  her  book.  At  this  period 
she  began  to  call  herself  Mrs.  Glover  again.  In  the 
young  man,  Richard  Kennedy,  she  found  an  apt  stu- 
dent. Through  him  she  again  opened  an  office  and 
began  the  practice  of  her  Science,  which  was  now 
destined  to  be  more  widely  advertised  and  so  to  in- 
crease the  circle  of  her  possibilities.  Her  limitations 
began  to  dawn  upon  her.  She  was  not  cut  out  for  a 
practical  healer,  but  as  a  teacher  of  the  Quimby  dis- 
covery none,  perhaps,  might  excel  her.  An  experi- 
ment was  begun  with  Kennedy,  who  was  only  a  boy 


The  Woman  and  the  Book  35 

and  looked  exceedingly  youthful,  which  lasted  for 
three  years.  In  early  summer  he  put  up  his  modest 
sign,  ''Dr.  Kennedy."  By  autumn  his  office  was  liter- 
ally crowded  with  patients.  Men  laughed  at  him  and 
shrugged  their  shoulders,  and  then  said  to  their  wives 
and  daughters  afflicted  with  divers  and  slight  ailments, 
"Go  to  Doctor  Kennedy."  The  nervous  wrecks  and 
discouraged  invalids  that  had  been  given  up  by  other 
doctors  he  cured. 

Mrs.  Glover  lived  in  the  background  of  modest  re- 
tirement. Her  mission  was  now  a  serious  one,  and  the 
spirit  of  the  prophet  was  growing  within  her.  She  be- 
gan to  see  visions  of  future  power  and  mastery.  As 
never  before  life  loomed  up  as  a  solemn  business. 
Within  her  was  silently  growing  a  sense  of  conquest, 
a  subconscious  aspiration  for  power  and  influence. 
She  was  concentrated  on  "Science,"  and  any  signs  of 
laxity  on  the  part  of  her  young  coadjutor  she  frowned 
upon  as  wanting  dignity  and  appreciation  of  the  im- 
portance of  the  great  mission  she  had  espoused.  Pros- 
perity did  not  unnerve  her  purpose,  but  added  a  spur 
to  it.  Then  stirred  in  her  dreams  of  future  greatness 
and  glory.  She  was  often  heard  to  say  that  she  meant 
to  establish  a  religion  that  would  command  great  re- 
spect from  multitudes.  One  of  her  sayings  was  :  "You 
will  live  to  hear  the  church  bells  ring  out  my  birth- 
day." She  appeared  now,  not  as  the  prophet  of  an- 
other's great  destiny,  but  as  the  prophet  of  her  own 
destiny.  Up  to  this  time  life  had  doled  out  to  her 
only  obscurity,  ridicule,  poverty  and  failure.  But  the 
tide  that  is  in  the  affairs  of  men  had  changed.    To  her 


A     Lawsuit 


36  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

had  been  given  the  foundations  of  great  things  to  be 
and  a  boundless  ambition  to  achieve  them.  Every- 
thing was  forgotten  but  success  and  the  passion  of  her 
soul  for  "Science."  When  she  reached  her  psycholog- 
ical moment  she  knew  it.  When  power  to  command 
was  placed  in  her  hand  her  truly  remarkable  person- 
ality responded  to  its  touch. 

Another  promising  student  was  Charles  S.  Stanley, 
whose  wife  had  been  a  patient  of  Kennedy's  and  re- 
ceived much  benefit  from  his  treatment.  Under  the 
influence  of  his  wife's  urging  he  applied  himself  to 
learn  Mental  Healing,  but  afterward  declared  that 
Mrs.  Glover  gave  him  nothing  and  had  nothing  to 
teach.  This  was  her  second  large  and  important  dis- 
agreement with  a  disciple,  but  it  in  no  way  discour- 
aged her.  The  testimony  of  his  fellow  students  is 
that  there  was  much  talk  between  Stanley  and  Mrs. 
Glover.  Many  disagreements  followed.  They  clashed 
on  payment  of  fees.  She  said  she  could  walk  on  the 
water  and  live  without  eating.  He  took  objections. 
She  demanded  that  Stanley  give  up  his  Baptist  creed 
and  every  other  creed.  He  refused.  She  had  met  a 
mind  that  she  could  not  control,  and  they  parted.  A 
civil  suit  followed,  in  which  Mrs.  Glover  was  worsted. 
In  the  trial  of  the  case  most  curious  testimony  came 
out  regarding  her  teaching,  such  as  this :  "So  long  as 
one  believed  in  a  personal  God  and  in  response  to 
prayer,  they  could  not  progress  in  scientific  religion." 
Dr.  Kennedy  gave  as  his  testimony  that  "I  never  gave 
up  my  belief  in  a  personal  God,  though  my  belief  was 
pretty  well  shaken  up." 


The  Woman  and  the  Book  37 

Under  the  name  of  Patterson  Mrs.  Eddy  wrote  to 
the  Portland,  Maine,  press :  "P.  P.  Qnimby  stands  Quimby 
upon  the  plain  of  wisdom  with  his  truth.  Christ  Maniwcript. 
healed  the  sick,  but  not  by  juggling  or  with  drugs;  as 
the  former  speaks  as  never  man  before  spake,  and 
heals  as  never  man  healed  since  Christ,  is  he  not  iden- 
tified with  truth,  and  is  not  this  the  Christ  that  was  in 
him?  P.  P.  Quimby  rolls  away  the  stone  from  the 
sepulchre,  and  health  is  the  resurrection." 

By  the  year  1870  her  estimation  of  the  Quimby 
manuscripts  and  teachings  seems  to  have  undergone 
some  change.  In  the  six  years  of  her  migratory  life 
she  had  written  and  rewritten  parts  and  wholes  of 
these  works,  adding  prefaces  and  changing  and  inter- 
weaving into  the  heart  of  the  compositions  much  of 
her  own  thoughts.  Yet  she  still  continued  to  attrib- 
ute their  authorship  to  Quimby.  Daniel  H.  Spofford, 
who  was  one  of  her  most  brilliant  students  and  prom- 
ising disciples,  states  that  he  became  her  pupil  in  1870, 
when  he  resided  in  Lynn,  Massachusetts,  and  that 
then  Mary  Baker  Glover  was  a  teacher ,  of  meta- 
physical healing.  She  taught  from  three  manuscripts, 
entitled  "Questions  and  Answers  in  Moral  Science," 
"The  Science  of  Man,"  and  "Soul's  Enquiries  of 
Man."  She  always  attributed  the  authorship  of  these 
manuscripts  to  P.  P.  Quimby  of  Portland,  Maine. 
Notwithstanding  this,  as  will  appear  more  in  detail 
later,  she  denies  her  debt  to  Quimby,  and  claims  that 
in  1866  she  discovered  the  Science  of  Metaphysical 
Healing,  which  she  afterward  named  Christian  Sci- 
ence. 


38  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

Mrs.  Eddy's  relation  to  Quimby  and  the  part  that 
his  manuscripts  had  in  the  development  of  her  Chris- 
tian Science  doctrines  have  been  a  matter  of  grave 
controversy  for  years.  She  claims  that  this  discovery 
was  given  to  her  as  a  divine  revelation,  and  then  re- 
pudiates P.  P.  Quimby  and  all  his  works,  especially 
"malicious  animal  magnetism."  Although  this  divine 
revelation  which  she  called  Christian  Science  came  to 
her  in  1866,  so  she  says,  in  1868  and  1870  she  still 
taught  the  Quimby  method,  and  even  allowed  herself 
to  be  treated  by  rubbing  and  all  the  methods  of  Quim- 
byism.  It  is  distinctly  remembered  by  those  who 
played  the  role  of  host  to  her  in  those  days  that  she 
acknowledged  Quimby,  possessed  and  taught  from  the 
Quimby  manuscripts,  and  lauded  Quimbyism  as  the 
only  cure  for  disease.  Miss  Milmine  has  presented  in 
one  of  her  McClnrc  Magazine  articles  a  collection  of 
quotations  from  the  Quimby  manuscripts,  "Ques- 
tions and  Answers,"  some  of  which  are  herewith  given 
to  the  reader;  it  will  not  be  difficult  to  find  in  them 
familiar  words  and  expressions  to  one  at  all  ac- 
quainted with  the  Christian  Science  phraseology. 


In  this  science  the  names  arc  given  thus :  God  is  Wisdom. 
This  Wisdom  is  not  an  Individuality  but  a  principle,  embraces 
every  idea  form,  of  which  the  idea,  man,  is  the  highest — hence 
the  image  of  God,  or  the  Principle. 

Understanding  is  God. 

All  sciences  are  part  of  God. 

Truth  is  God. 

There  is  no  other  Truth  but  God. 

God  is  Wisdom.     God  is  Principle. 

Wisdom,  Love,  and  Truth  are  the  Principle. 

Error  is  matter. 

Matter  has  no  intelligence. 


The  Woman  and  the  Book  39 

To  give  intelligence  to  matter  is  an  error  which  is  sickness. 

Matter  has  no  intelligence  of  its  own,  and  to  believe  intelli- 
gence is  in  matter  is  the  error  which  produces  pain  and  in- 
harmony  of  all  sorts;  to  hold  ourselves  we  are  a  principle 
outside  of  matter,  we  would  not  be  influenced  by  the  opinions 
of  man,  but  held  to  the  workings  only  of  a  principle,  Truth, 
in  which  there  are  no  inharmonies  of  sickness,  pain  or  sin.  _ 

For  matter  is  an  error,  there  being  no  substance,  which  is 
Truth,  in  a  thing  which  changes  and  is  only  that  which  belief 
makes  it. 

Christ  was  the  Wisdom  that  knew  Truth  dwelt  not  in 
opinion,  and  that  matter  was  but  opinion  that  could  be 
formed  into  any  shape  which  the  belief  gave  to  it,  and  that 
the  life  which  moved  it  came  not  from  it,  but  was  outside  of  it. 

I  know  of  no  better  counsel  than  Jesus  gave  to  His  Dis- 
ciples when  He  sent  them  forth  to  cast  out  devils,  and  heal 
the  sick,  and  thus  in  practice  to  preach  the  Truth,  "Be  ye 
wise  as  serpents  and  harmless  as  doves."  Never  get  into  a 
passion,  but  in  patience  possess  ye  your  soul,  and  at  length 
you  weary  out  the  discord  and  produce  harmony  by  your 
Truth  destroying  error.  Then  it  is  you  get  the  case.  Now, 
if  you  are  not  afraid  to  face  the  error  and  argue  it  down, 
then  you  can  heal  the  sick. 

The  patient's  disease  is  in  his  belief. 

Error  is  sickness.     Truth  is  health. 

If  I  understand  how  disease  originates  in  the  mind  and 
fully  believe  it,  why  cannot  I  cure  myself? 

Disease  being  made  by  our  beliefs  or  by  our  parents'  beliefs 
or  by  public  opinion,  there  is  no  one  formula  of  argument  to 
be  adopted,  but  every  one  must  be  hit  in  their  particular  case. 
Therefore  it  requires  great  shrewdness  or  wisdom  to  get  the 
better  of  the  error. 


Many  people  unite  in  saying  that  she  always  ac- 
knowledged the  manuscripts  that  she  used  as  from  P. 
P.  Quimby's  pen.  One  of  these  is  the  man  who  be- 
came well  known  as  her  ablest  manager  and  business 
agent,  Daniel  H.  Spofford,  who  declares  that  she  al- 
ways attributed  the  authorship  of  "Questions  and 
Answers  in  Moral  Science,"  "The  Science  of  Man," 
and  "Soul's  Enquiries  of  Man"  to  Quimby.    Little  by 


40  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

little  Quimby's  name  was  dropped  as  of  no  advantage 
and  more  and  more  possessing  a  positive  hindrance  to 
her  advancement. 

The  period  of  her  wanderings  is  most  unsatisfying 
to  the  student  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  biography.  She  has 
sought  to  seal  it  up  as  close  as  a  tomb.  Her  aim 
seems  to  be  to  leave  the  impression  that,  like  St.  Paul, 
she  was  the  peculiar  recipient  of  the  favor  of  God. 

In  ''Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  after  fixing 
the  date  1866,  the  time  of  her  now  famous  fall  on  the 
ice  in  Lynn,  as  the  period  of  her  miraculous  cure  and 
divine  revelation  of  Metaphysical  Healing,  she  says : 

"I  then  withdrew  from  society  about  three  years, 
to  ponder  my  mission,  to  search  the  Scriptures,  to  find 
the  Science  of  Mind  that  should  take  the  things  of  God 
and  show  them  to  the  creature,  and  reveal  the  great 
curative  Principle — Deity." 
"Science  and  By  1 875  the  book  "Science  and  Health"  was 
published  ready  for  the  publishers.  No  word  in  it  hints  for  how 
large  a  part  of  it  she  was  indebted  to  Quimby.  As  it 
grew,  so  her  desire  to  mention  him  grew  less.  Now 
at  the  date  of  its  completion  the  student  in  her  classes 
heard  little  or  nothing  about  him.  The  book  appeared 
in  print  at  the  end  of  the  year.  Friends,  it  is  stated, 
advanced  her  the  thousand  dollars  which  the  printer 
wanted  in  hand  before  he  would  put  out  an  edition. 
One  thousand  copies  fell  silently  from  the  press,  al- 
most unheralded.  Born,  and  the  world  knew  it  not! 
How  must  that  four  hundred  and  forty-first  edition  of 
a  recent  year  look  down  with  compassion  upon  the 
forerunner  of  a  multitudinous  race. 


Marriage 


The  Woman  and  the  Book  41 

The  problem  now  was  to  sell  it  and  make  an  ap- 
preciative public.  To  effect  this  most  desired  purpose 
she  persuaded  one  of  her  most  successful  pupils,  Mr. 
Spofford,  to  take  up  the  work  of  agent.  This  step 
marked  a  new  era  in  her  rise  to  conspicuous  position 
before  a  wide  public.  Spofford  sold  the  book  and  as 
press  agent  made  good  in  a  large  degree. 

In  1877  she  married  Asa  Gilbert  Eddy,  the  stu-  ™rd 
dent  who  took  Spofford's  place  as  her  leading  prac- 
titioner. She  had  now  entered  the  matrimonial  state 
with  a  "true  man,"  in  the  fifty-second  year  of  her  age. 
Mr.  Eddy  was  forty.  It  mattered  not,  however,  in 
"Science."  For  reasons  best  known  to  herself,  but 
not  accepted  in  the  most  happy  spirit  by  her  inti- 
mates in  the  business  of  advancing  Christian  Science 
interests,  she  sent  for  Rev.  Samuel  B.  Stewart,  a  Uni- 
tarian clergyman,  who  on  New  Year's  night  performed 
the  ceremony  at  Mrs.  Glover's  residence  on  Broad 
street,  Lynn,  Massachusetts.  Hereafter  she  was  to 
be  known  to  her  church  and  the  world  as  Mary  Baker 
Glover  Eddy.  Although  her  opinion  of  marriage,  from 
her  published  statements  regarding  it,  is  so  low,  of 
this  union  she  writes : 

"My  last  marriage  was  with  Asa  Gilbert  Eddy, 
and  was  a  blessed  spiritual  union,  solemnized  at  Lynn, 
Mass.,  by  the  Rev.  Samuel  Barrett  Stewart,  in  the 
year  1877.  Dr.  Eddy  was  the  first  student  to  publicly 
announce  himself  a  Christian  Scientist  and  place  these 
symbolic  words  on  his  office  sign.  He  forsook  all  to 
follow  in  this  line  of  light.  He  was  the  first  organ- 
izer of  a  Christian  Science  Sundav-school,  which  he 


42  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

superintended.  He  also  taught  a  special  Bible  class, 
and  lectured  so  ably  on  Scriptural  topics  that  even 
ministers  listened  to  him  with  mingled  surprise  and 
approbation.  He  was  remarkably  successful  in  Mind 
Healing  and  untiring  in  his  chosen  work.  In  1882 
he  passed  away  with  a  smile  of  love  and  peace  resting 
on  his  countenance."  The  physicians  who  conducted 
the  autopsy  concluded  that  death  was  caused  by  heart 
disease,  distinctly  developed.  Think  of  it — the  first 
Christian  Science  doctor  (  ?)  to  hang  out  his  shingle, 
and  then  to  die  of  heart  disease !  But  Mrs.  Eddy  de- 
clared that  he  died  of  arsenical  poisoning,  mentally 
administered. 
confusing:  jt  js  rather  a  curious  coincidence  that  Mrs.  Eddy 

Dates  .  J 

did  not  give  to  the  world  her  work  setting  forth  the 
claims  of  Christian  Science  as  a  discovery  of  her  own 
until  after  P.  P.  Quimby  passed  away.  His  death 
occurred  in  1865.  ^n  tne  following  year,  she  affirms, 
the  great  revelation  came  to  her,  although  she  con- 
tradicts herself  in  this  matter  by  the  substitution  of 
two  other  dates  at  different  times  as  to  the  set  time 
of  revelation.     In  plain  terms  she  writes : 

"It  was  in  Massachusetts,  in  the  year  of  1866,  that 
I  discovered  the  Science  of  Metaphysical  Healing, 
which  I  afterwards  named  Christian  Science.  The 
discovery  came  to  pass  in  this  way :  during  twenty 
years  prior  to  my  discovery  I  had  been  trying  to  trace 
all  physical  effects  to  mental  cause,  and  in  January, 
1866,  I  gained  the  scientific  certainty  that  all  causation 
was  mind  and  every  effect  a  mental  phenomenon/' 
Mrs.  Eddy  in  those  days  even  felt  that  her  primary 


The  Woman  and  the  Book  43 

students  were  quite  well  enough  equipped  to  try  their 
fledgling  wings  on  a  public  waiting  to  be  impressed. 
This  is  the  way  she  puts  it :  "Having  received  my 
instructions  in  the  primary  class,  and  afterwards  stud- 
ied thoroughly  'Science  and  Health/  the  student 
should  not  hesitate  to  enter  upon  this  privileged  Gos- 
pel work  and  so  fulfil  the  command  of  Christ.  Yea, 
an  apt  Bible  scholar  and  a  consecrated  Christian  by 
deeply  dipping  into  my  last  revised  'Science  and 
Health'  may  even  enter  this  field  of  labor  without  any 
personal  instruction — beneficial  to  himself  and  the 
race." 

Certainly  she  can  gloss  over  real  facts  and  make 
her  motives  appear  quite  different  in  the  telling  from 
what  they  really  are  ! 

The  many  conflicting  dates  which  Mrs.  Eddy  has 
chosen  to  give  as  the  time  when  the  inception  of  Chris- 
tian Science  came  into  her  mind  are  puzzling  to  the 
student  of  her  history.  Naturally  an  explanation  is 
sought.  At  first  it  may  be  thought  to  be  simply  the 
general  inconsistency  that  runs  through  her  many 
writings.  But  on  further  investigation  a  purpose  and 
an  object  loom  up.  She  claimed  a  divine  revelation. 
She  must  make  her  prior  and  subsequent  actions  fit 
into  this  revelation.  The  reader  has  seen  that  her 
connection  with  P.  P.  Quimby  had  come  to  be  re- 
garded by  her  as  a  direct  detriment.  She  must  re- 
move all  trace  of  a  distinctly  human  origin  of  her  sys- 
tem in  order  to  meet  attacks  and  assertions  that  the 
beginning  of  her  knowledge  of  Mind  Healing  was  in 
what   she    received   from   Quimby.     To   combat   Mr. 


44  The  Mask  ot  Christian  Science 

Julius  A.  Dresser's  assertion,  made  in  the  Church  of 
Divine  Unity  in  Boston,  that  Quimby  was  the  origina- 
tor of  the  present  system  of  mental  healing,  and  that 
she  received  what  she  knows  about  it  from  him  as  his 
patient  and  student,  Mrs.  Eddy  was  compelled  to  de- 
fend her  position. 

In  the  Christian  Science  Journal  of  1887  (June)  is 
an  answer  from  her  pen  to  this  charge.  It  affirms : 
"As  long  ago  as  1844,  I  was  convinced  that  mortal 
mind  produced  all  disease."  In  order  to  clinch  the 
point  and  rout  the  enemy,  she  adds :  "In  1862  I 
was  proclaiming  that  Science  must  govern  all  healing." 
Then  in  order  to  evade  another  attack,  Mrs.  Eddy 
said  that  in  1853  she  was  acquainted  with  the  science 
of  Mental  Healing.  Mr.  Dresser  was  himself  a  pa- 
tient and  pupil  of  Quimby.  In  Boston  he  practised 
mental  healing  as  taught  by  his  master  and  from  manu- 
scripts written  by  him.  His  statements  as  to  Mrs. 
Eddy's  relation  with  the  Portland  seer,  and  the  obli- 
gation of  Christian  Science  to  him,  led  to  the  rise  of 
the  so-called  Quimby  controversy. 

In  the  first  edition  of  "Science  and  Health,"  issued 
in  1875,  it  is  stated  that  its  author  first  learned  in  1864 
that  "Science  mentally  applied  would  heal  the  sick." 

As  late  as  1887,  in  the  Christian  Science  Journal, 
she  proclaims  that  prior  to  her  visit  to  Quimby  in 
1862  she  "knew  nothing  of  the  Science  of  Mind 
Healing"  and  that  "Mind  Science  was  unknown  to 
me."  Naturally  her  opponents  and  the  objectors  to 
her  lofty  claim  of  any  superior  divine  inspiration  have 
used  this  assertion  against  her,  and  with  telling  effect. 


The  Woman  and  the  Book  45 

Christian  Scientists  have  now  settled  on  the  even- 
ing of  February  1,  1866,  as  the  hour  when  the  new 
religion  was  born.  Mrs.  Eddy,  defending  this  point, 
as  strategic  to  her  position,  writes :  "It  was  in  Massa- 
chusetts, February,  1866,  and  after  the  death  of  the 
magnetic  doctor,  Mr.  P.  P.  Quimby,  whom  Spiritual- 
ists would  associate  therewith,  but  who  was  in  no 
wise  connected  with  this  event,  that  I  discovered  the 
Science  of  Divine  Metaphysical  Healing,  which  I  aft- 
erwards named  Christian  Science." 

In  "Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  on  page  38, 
and  onward,  she  tells  the  story : 

"My  immediate  recovery  from  the  effects  of  an  in- 
jury caused  by  an  accident,  an  injury  that  neither 
medicine  nor  surgery  could  reach,  was  the  falling  ap- 
ple that  led  me  to  the  discovery  how  to  be  well  myself 
and  how  to  make  others  so." 

In  a  later  version  of  this  affair,  as  told  by  the  Pub-  a 
lishing  Society  of  this  denomination,  the  fall  on  the  i™reacnlous" 
icy  curbstone  and  the  consequent  almost  fatal  injury, 
with  the  helplessness  of  the  skilled  physician,  led  to 
miraculous  results : 

"Finding  no  hope  and  no  help  on  earth,  she  lifted 
her  heart  to  God.  On  the  third  day,  calling  for  her 
Bible,  she  asked  the  family  to  leave  the  room.  Her 
Bible  opened  to  the  healing  of  the  palsied  man,  Matt. 
10:2.  The  truth  which  set  him  free  she  saw.  The 
power  which  gave  him  strength  she  felt.  The  life 
divine  which  healed  the  sick  of  the  palsy  restored 
her,  and  she  rose  from  the  bed  of  pain  healed  and 
free." 


46  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

As  near  as  proof  that  would  hold  in  a  court  of  law 
can  reach  the  case,  the  above  is  a  fiction  pure  and 
simple. 

The  facts  are  these :  Mrs.  Eddy  did  fall  on  the  icy 
sidewalk.  She  was  hurt.  A  doctor  was  called  in. 
But  the  rest  is  fable. 

The  Christian  Science  Publishing  Society  says :  "The 
doctor  pronounced  the  verdict  that  she  had  but  three 
days  to  live." 

The  physician,  a  Homceopathist,  Alvin  M.  Cushing, 
makes  affidavit  that  he  was  called  to  attend  profes- 
sionally a  Mrs.  Patterson.     He,  under  oath,  affirms: 

"I  did  not  at  any  time  declare,  or  believe,  that  there 
was  no  hope  for  Mrs.  Patterson's  recovery,  or  that 
she  was  in  a  critical  condition,  and  did  not  at  any  time 
say,  or  believe,  that  she  had  but  three  or  any  other 
limited  number  of  days  to  live." 

Mrs.  Eddy  writes  in  "Retrospection  and  Introspec- 
tion" : 

"Even  to  the  Homoeopathic  physician  who  attended 
me,  and  rejoiced  in  my  recovery,  I  could  not  then 
explain  the  modus  of  my  relief.  I  could  only  assure 
him  that  the  Divine  Spirit  had  wrought  the  miracle." 

In  the  same  affidavit,  published  in  McClure's  Maga- 
zine, Dr.  Cushing  affirms: 

"Mrs.  Patterson  did  not  suggest,  say,  or  pretend, 
or  in  any  way  whatever  intimate,  that  on  the  third 
day,  or  any  other  day,  of  her  illness  she  had  miracu- 
lously recovered  or  been  healed,  or  that,  discovering  or 
perceiving  the  truth  of  the  power  employed  by  Christ 
to  heal  the  sick,  she  had,  by  it,  been  restored  to  health." 


The  Woman  and  the  Book  47 

Mrs.  Eddy  herself  disproves  the  miraculous  ac- 
count in  one  of  her  own  letters  written  two  weeks 
after  the  fall : 

"Two  weeks  ago  I  fell  on  the  sidewalk  and  struck 
my  head  on  the  ice,  and  was  taken  up  for  dead. 
.  .  Now,  can't  you  help  me?  I  believe  you 
can.     I  think  I  could  help  another." 

Now  what  conclusion  may  the  investigator  of 
Metaphysical  Healing  and  this  episode  in  Mrs.  Eddy's 
life  come  to  ?    Evidently  this  : 

The  stories  about  it  are  fictions.  There  is  nothing 
miraculous  in  the  cure.  There  is  no  divine  revela- 
tion regarding  divine  healing  proved  at  this  time. 
Quite  the  contrary.  The  prophet  was  mute  at  the  time 
regarding  it.  She  appealed  to  another  for  help  eleven 
days  after  she  records  a  miraculous  cure.  The  Miracle 
—the  Revelation— are  a  fancy.  The  legendary  lore 
created  to  throw  a  false,  supernatural  glamour  about 
the  incident  is  a  boomerang  calculated  to  return  with 
destructive  force  against  foundations  laid  in  fable, 
evasions,  false  imaginings,  and  cunning  perversions. 


CHAPTER  III. 
A  MASK  FOR  COMMERCE  AND  GLORY 

Flying  Many       Faith  healing  has  long  been  a  recognized  privilege 
Flags  0£  tne  Christian  Church.     Mesmer  and  his  successors 

made  healing  by  fluid  a  popular  fad.  The  something 
he  called  fluid  emanated  from  him.  In  these  latter 
days  mysticism  has  discovered  a  new  method  of  phys- 
ical repair  and  bodily  renovation,  without  drug  inter- 
vention or  skill  of  surgery.  Many  names  have  been 
given  to  the  process,  the  New  Thought,  Mind  Cure, 
Metaphysical  Healing,  Faith  Cure,  Cure  by  Appeal  to 
the  Sub-conscious  Self,  Cure  by  Suggestion,  Divine 
Healing,  Divine  Science,  the  Emmanuel  Movement, 
and  others. 

The  basic  element  in  a  number  of  these  is  the  same, 
however,  no  matter  how  many  differing  shades  of  doc- 
trine may  be  indicated.  The  central  tenet,  loudly  pro- 
claimed, is  one,  that  the  disease  does  not  exist;  it  is 
a  figment,  a  mortal  error.  Believe  there  is  nothing 
the  matter,  and  there  is  nothing  to  be  cured.  Chris- 
tian Science  boldly  declares:  "The  power  of  poison 
lies  in  the  belief."  "Deny  sin,  sickness  and  death,  for 
matter  is  nothing."  "Rheumatism  and  pneumonia," 
says  one  disciple,  "are  verbal  utterances  for  unthink- 
ables."  "Deny  sickness  and  pain,"  says  another, 
and  you  will  be  happy."    "Disease  is  a  delusion,  the 

48 


A  Mask  for  Commerce  and  Glory  49 

result  of  a  conscious  or  unconscious  conspiracy  on  the 
part  of  a  false  belief  that  has  fastened  itself  on  the 
mind." 

The  cure  does  not  lie,  it  is  asserted,  in  faith,  but  in 
knowledge.  Even  this  is  not  absolutely  necessary  on 
the  part  of  the  patient,  for  he  can  be  cured  by  the  di- 
rection of  another's  thoughts.  Hence  absent  treatment 
comes  just  as  high  as  present,  and  is  quite  as  effica- 
cious. In  all  these  attempts  at  projecting  mental 
states  into  the  world  of  matter  and  making  a  belief 
stand  for  accomplished  results  and  living  entities,  the 
mask  of  the  unreal  and  the  ideal  covers  the  face  of 
reality  and  experience. 

Of  all  these  various  schools  of  Mental  Healing  the 
most  loudly  proclaimed  to-day,  and,  it  must  also  be 
added,  the  most  successful,  is  the  self-called  Chris- 
tian Science.  To  the  unbiased  investigator  the  name 
may  not  appear  to  be  happily  chosen,  but  rather  to  be 
a  misnomer,  for  it  has  the  appearance  of  being  a  mask 
to  conceal  depths  entirely  unsuspected  from  its  out- 
side indications.  It  attempts  to  characterize  as  Chris- 
tian a  something  which  has  eliminated  the  distinctive 
doctrines  of  Christianity  on  its  evangelical  side,  and 
gone  out  of  its  way  to  antagonize  even  those  forms  of 
religious  expression  known  as  unevangelical.  The 
Christian  could  hardly  be  expected  to  recognize  a  sys- 
tem from  which  all  the  distinctive  articles  of  faith  his 
heart  holds  dear  have  been  emasculated.  Orthodox 
science,  on  the  other  hand,  would  hardly  allow  the 
presumptuous  claim  of  family  likeness  to  a  cult  that 
denies  the  reality  of  matter  and  its  divers  phenomena, 


Not  Christian 


Not   Scientific 


50  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

and  asserts  that  strychnine  does  not  poison  and  alcohol 
does  not  intoxicate,  that  geology  cannot  explain  the 
formation  of  the  earth's  crust,  that  animals  were  not 
created  carnivorous,  that  life  is  not  propagated  by 
germ-cells,  that  there  is  no  law  of  heredity,  and  that 
male  and  female  are%not  necessary  for  human  gener- 
ation. 
But  a  Power  Though  it  may  be  neither  Christian  nor  scientific, 
Christian  Science  must  be  reckoned  with  as  a  promi- 
nent modern  force,  a  system  that  has  secured  a  strong 
foothold.  On  its  aspirational  side  it  is  phenomenal, 
and  is  found  to  be  a  most  live  and  real  thing  in  the 
world  of  mind,  and  also  of  that  matter  which  it  af- 
fects to  despise.  A  door  of  hope  has  been  opened  by 
it  in  the  valley  of  sin,  sickness  and  human  misery 
that  has  brought  happiness  and  peace  to  thousands,  and 
a  certain  sort  of  nobility  of  spirit  amid  the  mazes  of 
its  strange  delusions  and  in  spite  of  the  mask  it  wears 
before  the  solid  facts  of  existence. 

The  Christian  Science  sect  has  at  present  1,100  so- 
cieties. There  are  over  8,000  healers  attached  to  Chris- 
tian Science,  and  something  like  60,000  church  mem- 
bers are  claimed  by  it.  The  Mother  Church  in  Bos- 
ton was  erected  at  a  cost  of  $2,000,000.  The  stately 
and  magnificent  architectural  structures  in  New  York 
and  elsewhere  attest  its  wealthy,  aristocratic,  and 
numerous  following.  Their  Bible  is  "Science  and 
Health;  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures."  It  was  first 
composed  by  Mrs.  Eddy,  who  incorporated  in  it  the 
original  manuscripts  secured  from  the  writings  of  P. 
P.  Quimby.     She  added  many  comments,  additions, 


A  Mask  for  Commerce  and  Glory  51 

emendations,  and  speculations  of  her  own  with  an  ex- 
panding and  growing  philosophy  never  dreamed  of  hy 
Duimby.  The  first  edition  was  crude,  illiterate  and 
^et  claimed  to  be  founded  on  the  Bible,  while  in  real- 
ty it  is  a  travesty  on  Christianity,  from  which  it  has 
squeezed  all  the  grace  and  beauty  of  its  distinctive  doc- 
rines.  Since  that  first  volume  some  four  hundred  and 
:orty  editions  have  been  issued. 

The  immature  and  almost  incomprehensible  style  of 
:he  author  has  been  altered  for  the  better.  This  proc- 
ess began  with  the  author's  confidential  adviser,  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Wiggin,  and  has  gone  on  in  succeeding 
,rears  from  many  different  pens.  Statements  too  out- 
*ageous  have  been  softened  and  partly  eliminated,  em- 
phasis has  been  transferred  from  one  event  to  another, 
>ne  crisis  or  strategic  point  in  revelation  dwarfed  and 
mother  made  prominent  until  the  student  is  led  to 
exclaim :  If  the  book  is  a  divine  revelation,  as  the 
mthor  claims,  how  comes  it  that  Deity  did  not  know 
lis  own  mind  and  had  to  mask  it  under  so  many  dis- 
guises, and  call  in  so  many  editors  to  smooth  it  out, 
shifting  the  point  of  view  according  to  the  varying 
vinds  of  circumstances,  the  stress  of  argument,  and 
he  charge  of  contradiction,  of  falsehood,  of  impossi- 
)ility?  Does  it  take  astute  human  editors  to  extricate 
he  divine  Revelator  from  a  dilemma?  Upwards  of 
lalf  a  million  of  copies  have  been  acknowledged  as 
;old  to  date,  the  cheapest  edition  selling  at  the  price  of 
ive  dollars.  No  inconsiderable  source  of  income  !  As 
:ommerce  Metaphysical  Healing  pays ! 

In  her  church  Mrs.  Eddy  is  an  autocrat.    All  power 


52 


The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 


Autocratic 
Rule 


Instructions 
to    Healers 


emanates  from  her.  Officers,  readers,  healers  are  her 
creatures.  She  gives  the  law,  and  tenure  of  office  is  at 
her  pleasure.  She  prescribes  the  form  of  church  serv- 
ice. No  one  can  preach  in  a  Christian  Science  church 
but  Mrs.  Eddy.  The  only  books  to  be  used  in  the  ser- 
vice are  the  Bible  and  "Science  and  Health;  with  Key 
to  the  Scriptures."  The  service  consists  in  reading 
parallel  passages  from  each  book,  usually  some  definite 
theme  being  announced.  No  church  members  can 
belong  to  any  other  society  or  club,  the  Free  Masons 
excepted.  No  books  are  needed  in  her  code  besides  the 
Bible  and  her  own  ''Science  and  Health"  for  all  the 
intellectual  and  social  needs  of  her  followers,  and  it  is 
understood  that  Mrs.  Eddy  is  strictly  obeyed  by  them. 
Says  a  living  Englishman :  "Few  rulers  probably  in 
the  course  of  human  history  have  commanded  such 
implicit  and  such  willing  obedience  from  so  large  a 
following."    As  glory  the  system  is  a  great  success ! 

When  one  gathers  together  for  a  consecutive  sur- 
vey the  many  rules  Mrs.  Eddy  has  laid  down  for  the 
practice  of  her  Mind  Healing,  absurdities  and  contra- 
dictions meet  the  reader  at  almost  every  step  of  the 
way.  She  transcends  in  singing  the  praise  of  know- 
nothing-ism.  Where  ignorance  is  bliss,  'tis  folly  to  be 
wise.  Keep  your  mind  a  blank  and  the  first  impres- 
sions will  stand  out  upon  it  in  vivid  relief.  For  "A 
patient  thoroughly  booked  in  medical  theories  has  less 
sense  of  the  divine  power,  and  is  more  difficult  to  heal 
through  Mind,  than  an  aboriginal  Indian  who  never 
bowed  his  knee  to  the  Baal  of  civilization." 

The  healer  ought  to  be  alone  with  the  patient,  as 


A  Mask  for  Commerce  and  Glory  53 

minds  adverse  to  Christian  Science  principles  and 
dogmas  may  set  up  cross  currents  of  thought  and  work 
against  the  mind  of  the  one  in  "Science."  Hence, 
"You  should  seek  to  be  alone  with  the  sick  while  treat- 
ing them,"  seeing  to  it  that  "the  minds  which  surrround 
your  patient  do  not  act  against  your  influence  by  con- 
tinually expressing  such  opinions  as  alarm." 

Occult,  mysterious  and  subtle  mental  practices  are 
recommended :  "If  you  call  mentally  and  silently  the 
disease  by  name,  as  you  argue  against  it,  as  a  general 
rule  the  body  will  respond  more  quickly;  just  as  a 
person  replies  more  quickly  when  his  name  is  spoken; 
but  this  is  because  you  are  not  perfectly  attuned  to 
Divine  Science,  and  need  the  arguments  of  truth  for 
reminders.  To  let  the  spirit  bear  witness  without 
words  is  the  more  scientific  way." 

"Call  the  disease  by  name!"  There  is  no  sickness, 
yet  the  disease  is  to  be  called  by  name ! 

There  are  some  wicked  practices  that  must  at  all 
hazards  be  eschewed.  Right  here  Mrs.  Eddy  speaks 
out  with  no  uncertain  sound:  "A  Christian  Scientist 
never  gives  medicine,  never  recommends  hygiene, 
never  manipulates.  He  never  tries  to  'focus  mind.' 
He  never  places  patient  and  practitioner  back  to  back, 
'never  consults'  spirits,  or  requires  the  life-history  of 
his  patient.  Above  all  he  cannot  trespass  on  rights  of 
mind  through  animal  magnetism" — "malicious  animal 
magnetism/' 

The  "Mother"  has  a  horror  of  water  and  the  bath : 

"Bathing  and  rubbing  to  alter  the  secretions,  or  re- 


Histenelcs 


54  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

move  unhealthy  exhalations  from  the  cuticle,  receive 
a  useful  rebuke  from  Christian  Science  Healing." 

What  may  this  mean?  "John  Quincy  Adams  pre- 
sents an  instance  of  firm  health  and  an  adherence  to 
hygienic  rules,  but  there  are  few  others." 

Mrs.  Eddy  guards  against  anybody's  thinking  that 
T?°.on',  f°r  tne  patient  to  get  worse  is  a  bad  sign.     Strange 

that  one  who  never  has  been,  is,  or  can  be  sick  should 
get  worse.    She  says  : 

"Suppose  the  patient  should  appear  to  grow  worse? 
This  I  term  chemicalization.  It  is  the  upheaval  pro- 
duced when  immortal  Truth  is  destroying  erroneous 
and  mortal  belief.  Chemicalization  brings  sin  and 
sickness  to  the  surface,  as  in  a  fermenting  fluid,  allow- 
ing impurities  to  pass  away.  Patients  unfamiliar  with 
the  cause  of  this  commotion,  and  ignorant  of  its  fa- 
vorable omen,  may  be  alarmed.  If  such  is  the  case,  ex- 
plain to  them  the  law  of  this  action." 

Now  behold!  Notwithstanding  her  denial,  there  is 
really  existing  down  below  somewhere  sin  and  sick- 
ness, for  "chemicalization  brings  sin  and  sickness  to 
the  surface  I" 

What  Alice  Fielding  said  about  Christian  Science 
some  years  ago  is  not  so  far  from  the  truth : 

"This  creed,  invented,  expounded,  demonstrated,  and 
diffused  by  American  ladies,  is  surely  the  natural  out- 
come, in  emotional  natures  and  untrained  minds,  of  a 
smattering  of  spiritualism,  mesmerism,  mental  thera- 
peutics, mysticism,  and  metaphysics,  coupled  with  a 
profound  and  lofty  disdain  of  the  most  elementary 
scientific  knowledge." 


A  Mask  for  Commerce  and  Glory  55 

According  to  "Mother,"  sickness  and  disease  are 
nothing  but  error  which  Mind  must  heal.  But  they 
can  be  called  up  from  the  vasty  deep.  Hence  in  pre- 
paring to  treat  patients  the  mind  of  the  healer  must 
take  mental  gymnastics  to  be  fitted  for  the  herculean 
task :  "Be  firm  in  your  understanding  that  mind  gov- 
erns the  body.  Have  no  foolish  fear  that  matter  gov- 
erns, and  can  ache,  swell,  and  be  inflamed  by  a  law  of 
its  own,  when  it  is  self-evident  that  matter  can  have 
no  pain  or  inflammation." 

Speaking  of  weak  or  inflamed  nerves,  she  says : 
"You  will  call  it  neuralgia,  but  I  call  it  illusion."  And 
again :     "Realize  the  absence  of  disease." 

That  the  "Mother"  in  practice  exhibits  "the  most 
lofty  disdain  for  the  most  elementary  scientific  knowl- 
edge" this  technical  advice  would  indicate : 

"Anatomy,  physiology,  treatises  on  health,  sustained 
by  what  is  termed  material  law,  are  the  husbandmen 
of  sickness  and  disease.  It  is  proverbial  that  as  long 
as  you  read  medical  works  you  will  be  sick." 

Now  her  old  friends  are  held  up  to  reprobation: 

"Clairvoyants  and  medical  charlatans  are  the  pro- 
lific source  of  sickness.  When  there  were  fewer  doc- 
tors, and  less  thought  was  given  to  sanitary  subjects, 
there  were  better  constitutions  and  less  disease." 

Diet  does  not  count  either  for  weal  or  woe :  "Science" 

"We  are  told  that  the  simple  food  our  forefathers  Dietetics 
ate  assisted  to  make  them  healthy ;  but  that  is  a  mis- 
take.    Their   diet   would   not  cure   dyspepsia   at  this 
period.     With  rules  of  health  in  the  head,  and  the 





56  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

most  digestible  food  in  the  stomach,  there  would  still 
be  dyspeptics." 

If  these  words  mean  anything,  one  might  just  as 
well  give  a  horse  bran  as  oats,  and  the  human  stomach 
stone  as  bread.  It  is  a  well-known  fact  in  human  ex- 
perience that  what  is  food  for  one  man  may  be  poison 
for  another.  Some  men  eat  onions  with  delight,  and 
thrive  on  the  diet.  To  others  onions  are  rank  poison, 
even  be  they  rare-ripes.  There  was  a  young  physi- 
cian in  a  certain  town  of  New  York  who,  on  ac- 
count of  special  constitutional  tendencies,  could  not 
eat  the  onion  in  any  form.  He  boarded  with  a  widow 
who  had  an  only  daughter.  She  ridiculed  the  doctor 
and — a  Christian  Scientist  before  its  time — declared 
that  onions  affected  the  young  man  adversely  because 
he  believed  they  did.  But  not  even  ridicule  could 
shake  him  from  his  purpose  not  to  eat  them,  as  previ- 
ous experience  warned  him  of  the  danger.  The  young 
woman,  however,  would  not  be  convinced  by  his  pro- 
testations that  there  could  be  any  harm  to  any  one  in 
eating  this  fruit  of  the  kitchen  garden.  One  day  the 
doctor  was  late  for  the  midday  meal.  She  determined 
to  cure  him  of  his  dread  of  the  plant  and  at  the  same 
time  obtain  a  triumph  over  him.  Accordingly  she  pre- 
pared a  soup  in  which  the  onion  in  it  was  so  disguised 
that  no  expert  sense  could  detect  it,  yet  it  was  present. 
The  doctor  hurried  in  to  lunch.  The  young  woman 
set  before  him  the  soup.  He  tasted,  paused,  and  in- 
quired :  "Is  there  not  onion  in  this  soup  ?  You  know 
I  cannot  eat  it ;  it  poisons  me."  "Oh,  how  fussy  you 
are!"  she  cried.    "Don't  you  suppose  I  know  by  this 


A  Mask  for  Commerce  and  Glory  57 

time  that  you  say  you  cannot  eat  onions  ?  I  have  heard 
it  often  enough."  "It's  a  good  soup,"  he  replied,  "but 
I  thought  I  detected  the  flavor  of  onion.  If  it's  here 
you  will  regret  it."  With  a  smile  she  turned  away  to 
bring  him  the  meat  course,  feeling  that  the  moment 
of  her  triumph  was  near  and  imagining  the  fun  she 
would  have  in  teasing  him.  She  returned  to  the  din- 
ing room  with  the  rest  of  the  meal  just  as  he  fell  from 
his  chair  in  a  convulsion.  With  difficulty  he  recovered. 
Her  apparent  triumph  was  turned  into  genuine  regret 
for  her  foolhardy  prank. 

If  diet  is  of  no  avail,  Welsh  rarebit,  cocoanut  and 
lobster  are  as  good  for  a  weak  stomach  and  impaired 
digestion  as  the  most  easily  digestible  foods.  For  this 
latter,  according  to  the  author  of  Christian  Science 
practice,  would  still  breed  dyspeptics.  This  teaching 
strikes  out  against  common  sense  and  controverts  in 
the  next  place  the  value  of  physical  exercise.  Listen 
to  such  curious  ebullitions  as  these : 

"Because  the  muscles  of  the  blacksmith's  arm  are 
strongly  developed  it  does  not  follow  that  exercise  did 
it,  or  that  an  arm  less  used  must  be  fragile.  If  mat- 
ter were  the  cause  of  action,  and  muscles,  without  the 
co-operation  of  mortal  mind,  could  lift  the  hammer 
and  smite  the  nail,  it  might  be  thought  true  that  ham- 
mering enlarges  the  muscles.  Bat  the  trip-hammer  is 
not  increased  in  size  by  exercising.  Why  not,  since 
muscles  are  as  material  as  wood  and  iron?" 

If  the  strange  views  of  Christian  Scientists  were  con- 
fined  alone  to  mere  expressions  of  belief,  they  might 
be  passed  by  as  harmless.  The  doctrines  of  Metaphys- 


58  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

ical  Healing  have  not  been  unknown  to  science,  and 
for  generations  medical  men  and  expert  students  of 
pathology  have  referred  to  them  and  made  use  of  cer- 
tain principles  in  the  practice  of  medicine.  But  it  is 
when  the  Eddy  accompaniments  of  Mind  Healing  are 
pushed  to  the  extreme  that  danger  to  the  body  politic 
is  to  be  feared.  When  a  Christian  Scientist  goes  into 
the  slums  and  tells  ignorant  and  credulous  people  that 
the  "so-called  laws  of  health  and  hygiene"  are  provoc- 
ative of  disease;  that  sanitary  laws  are  no  more  than 
bad  dreams;  that  people  who  are  cleanly  are  less 
healthy  than  the  filthy  emigrants  that  come  to  our 
shores,  such  teaching  is  liable  to  make  the  ignorant 
regardless  of  law,  bring  our  health  and  sanitary  laws 
and  regulations  into  contempt,  and  contribute  to  the 
startling  spread  of  an  epidemic. 
power  over  Mrs.  Eddy  has  put  forth  such  astonishing  claims 
Death  "  tnat  one  must  perforce  deem  her  either  tinged  with 

insanity  or  feigning  to  believe  what  she  says  with  so 
much  vehemence  of  affirmation.  In  one  of  her  books 
she  affirms  that  she  "raised  the  dying,"  and  her  fol- 
lowers believe  it  and  report  that  in  one  instance  she 
restored  the  dead  to  life. 

One  of  her  pupils  gives  an  account  of  a  lecture  she 
attended : 

"While  she  denied  all  matter,  she  said  she  had  a 
little  geranium  plant  she  thought  much  of,  because  it 
was  so  responsive  to  her  touch.  She  said  that  one 
day  she  was  standing  beside  it  admiring  it,  when  it 
occurred  to  her  mind  that  she  would  give  a  command 
for  a  leaf  to  grow  out  while  she  stood  there ;  and  she 


A  Mask  for  Commerce  and  Glory  59 

said :  'Now  come  forth/  and  one  of  the  most  beau- 
tiful leaves  on  the  plant  started  from  a  bare  place  and 
she  watched  it  while  it  developed,  until  there  was  a 
perfect  production  of  her  powers.  .  .  .  She  said 
we  would  eat  chips  in  the  place  of  food." 

A  very  beautiful  girl,  but  one  of  immoral  life,  who 
lived  to  gratify  her  every  whim  and  appetite,  came 
under  Mrs.  Eddy's  instruction.  Under  some  hypnotic 
spell  she  became  convinced  that  she  would  soon  be  able 
to  raise  the  dead.  She  burst  in  upon  a  refined  and 
spiritually  minded  acquaintance  one  day,  exclaiming: 
"I  shall  soon  raise  the  dead,  just  as  Jesus  did." 

The  devout  woman  was  exceedingly  shocked,  and 
replied,  putting  her  arms  around  the  wayward,  deluded 
girl:  "Never  say  this  to  another.  I  can  understand 
the  hypnotic  influence  under  which  you  have  been 
laboring.  The  black  art  has  had  its  effect  on  you  in- 
deed. Are  you  like  Jesus  in  character?  Do  you  ex- 
pect to  do  His  works  when  there  is  not  one  desire  of 
the  flesh  you  do  not  gratify?  Do  you  think  that  by 
denying  sin,  as  Mrs.  Eddy  tells  you,  the  denying  of  a 
fact  makes  your  character  what  it  should  be,  giving 
you  the  same  power  that  Jesus  possessed  ?"  The  mask 
of  Metaphysical  Healing  covers  up  a  host  of  deformi- 
ties. 

To  say  to  yourself :  "I  am  not  sick,  I  have  no  pain," 
when  disease  and  suffering  are  racking  and  wasting 
the  system,  does  not  change  the  actual  condition.  A 
young  "Scientist"  was  afflicted  with  a  cold.  She  was 
very  hoarse,  but  had  to  take  a  singing  lesson  in  a  few 
hours.     Before  setting  out  for  the  lesson  she  waited 


60  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

on  her  healer.  A  silent  treatment  was  given,  and  the 
healer  bade  her  go  to  her  task,  as  she  would  be 
troubled  with  hoarseness  no  more.  Let  her  tell  the 
story  of  her  experience  with  the  cold  and  her  singing 
master : 

"As  soon  as  I  tried  to  sing,  the  German  professor 
said :  'You  cannot  sing  to-day.  Go  home  and  get  rid 
of  your  cold.'  'Oh,  I  haven't  any  cold,'  I  said.  The 
professor  looked  at  me  in  amazement.  'You  haf  no 
col' !'  he  exclaimed,  opening  his  eyes  wide.  'No,  I 
have  no  cold,'  I  replied.  'Then  why  you  not  sing?' 
said  he. 

"I  made  one  heroic  effort.  It  was  useless.  The 
professor  closed  the  piano  with  a  bang,  rose  and  bowed 
low  as  he  said :  'Go  home  and  a  doctor  see.  I  myself 
will  see  one,  for  eef  you  haf  not  a  col',  zen  I  am  what 
you  call  zee  crazy  man.'  "* 

The  mask  of  Metaphysical  Healing  hides  a  tumult 
of  absurdities  and,  to  the  ordinary  man  of  good,  sober 
sense,  a  big  pile  of  nonsense.  But  the  mask  hides  also 
the  greed  of  commercialism  and  the  bid  for  glory.  It 
pays  to  advocate  the  philosophy  of  the  unreal  under 
the  countenance  of  bodily  healing  and  religion.  There 
have  been  millions  in  it,  too.  The  founder  came  forth 
from  the  haunts  of  obscurity  and  poverty  to  reap  from 
this  credulous  and  superstitious  age  a  rich  harvest  in 
the  values  of  the  world  which  she  affirms  is  a  shadow 
and  an  illusion.  But  more  than  the  gratification  of 
her  sharp  New  England  commercialism  is  her  love  of 
glory,  adulation,  flattery  and  worship,  and  the  whis- 

*"Christian  Science  Claims,"  by  William  H.  Muldoon. 


A  Mask  for  Commerce  and  Glory  61 

pers  of  prophecy  from  out  the  shadows  echo:  "Still 
there  is  more  to  follow."  What  will  the  world,  ever 
eager  to  climb  up  some  other  way  into  the  sheepfold 
than  the  way  of  the  good  Shepherd,  who  is  Himself 
the  "Door,"  accord  her  in  the  future? 

Studying  the  various  writings  of  the  head  of  this  The 
system,  one  is  more  and  more  impressed  with  the  idea  "M«*«pi»ys*<*i 
that  Metaphysical  Healing  is  strongly  tinged  with 
commercialism  and  that  the  religious  development  of 
this  movement  is  largely  bound  up  with  finance  and 
glory.  There  is  a  shrewd  money-making  instinct  ob- 
servable in  its  inception  and  through  all  its  ramifica- 
tions. In  "Retrospection  and  Introspection"  Mrs. 
Eddy  says:  "In  1867  ...  I  began  teaching 
one  student  Christian  Science  Mind  Healing.  From 
this  seed  grew  the  Massachusetts  Metaphysical  Col- 
lege in  Boston,  chartered  in  1881." 

No  charter  for  colleges  like  the  "Massachusetts 
Metaphysical  College"  were  granted  by  the  State  after 
1883.  In  the  charter  taken  out  by  Mrs.  Eddy  no 
mention  was  made  of  Christian  Science  or  any  new 
discovery.  The  records  of  the  commonwealth  show 
the  instrument,  which  recites  the  incorporation  of  a 
college  for  the  purpose  of  "teaching  pantology,  on- 
tology, therapeutics,  moral  science,  metaphysics  and 
their  adaptation  to  the  treatment  of  disease." 

In  1883  the  "anti-diploma"  law  was  enacted  which 
prohibited  societies  organized  under  the  Act  by  which 
Mrs.  Eddy  obtained  the  charter  for  her  college — "An 
Act  concerning  Associations  for  Religious,  Charitable, 
Educational    and    other   purposes" — from    conferring 


62  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

degrees  and  issuing  diplomas,  unless  authorized  by 
special  act  of  the  Legislature.  The  penalty  for  dis- 
obeying this  consisted  of  a  fine  of  from  five  hundred  to 
one  thousand  dollars  for  each  violation.  Perhaps 
some  light  is  here  thrown  on  the  Christian  Science 
commercial  spirit  and  Mrs.  Eddy's  "conscientious 
scruples  about  diplomas." 

Her  alleged  reason  for  closing  the  college  is  stated 
by  her  in  this  fashion : 

"The  Massachusetts  Metaphysical  College  drew  its 
breath  from  me,  but  I  was  yearning  for  retirement. 
The  question  was,  who  else  could  sustain  this  insti- 
tute under  all  that  was  aimed  at — its  vital  purpose  the 
establishment  of  genuine  Christian  Science  Healing? 
My  conscientious  scruples  about  diplomas,  the  recent 
experience  of  the  Church  fresh  in  my  thoughts,  and 
the  growing  conviction  that  every  one  should  build  on 
his  own  foundation,  subject  to  one  builder  and  under 
God — all  these  considerations  moved  me  to  close  my 
flourishing  college." 

We  have  seen  above  that  the  State  and  the  law 
raised  a  barrier  to  the  continuance  of  her  college,  not- 
withstanding there  were  three  hundred  candidates 
waiting  for  admission  to  it,  representing  a  business  of 
at  least  ninety  thousand  dollars.  For,  although  the 
courses  were  short  in  this  remarkable  institution,  the 
fees  were  certainly  unknown  for  quantity  in  any  other 
like  commercial  transaction.     The  founder  writes : 

"When  God  impelled  me  to  set  a  price  on  my  in- 
struction ...  I  was  led  to  name  $300  as  the 
price  for  each  pupil  in  one  course  of  lessons  at  my 


A  Mask  for  Commerce  and  Glory  63 

college— a    startling   sum    for   tuition   lasting   hardly 
three  weeks." 

Three  hundred  dollars  was  asked  for  a  course  of  "Put  Money 
twelve  lessons  lasting  three  weeks.  The  normal  class  In  Thy  Purse" 
received  six  lessons  at  a  cost  of  two  hundred  dollars. 
There  was  a  class  in  Metaphysical  Obstetrics  which 
required  six  lectures,  price  one  hundred  dollars.  There 
was  also  a-  class  in  theology,  for  which  two  hundred 
must  be  paid.  Hence  to  be  rounded  and  completed  in 
Metaphysical  Healing  and  Christian  Science  Theology 
required  $800  in  tuition  alone! 

From  the  four  hundred  and  forty-one  editions  of  the 
book,  "Science  and  Health,"  it  has  been  estimated  that 
over  two  millions  of  dollars  have  been  realized.    This 
and  much  else  is  the  sole  property  of  the  great  auto- 
cratic head  of  the  institution.     Her  profits  must  have 
been    something    enormous,    demonstrating    that   her 
Metaphysical    Healing   and    religion    pay.     Not    for 
nothing  was  the  mind  of  the  mystic  tinctured  with  the 
trade  instinct  of  the  Yankee.     In  pages  300  and  301 
in  "Miscellaneous  Writings"  this  remarkable  woman 
says:       "Christian     Science     demonstrates     that    the 
patient  who  pays  whatever  he  is  able  to  pay  for  being 
healed  is  more  apt  to  recover  than  he  who  withholds 
a  slight  equivalent  for  health."     The  author  of  the 
book  and  the  Christian  Science  practitioner  both  stand 
ready,  with  charity  toward  all  and  malice  toward  none, 
to  help  the  poor  patient  recover  who  does  not  "with- 
hold a  slight  equivalent  for  health !" 
The  material  prosperity  that  has  come  to  Christian 


64  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

Scientists  is  witnessed  to  in  the  preface  of  the  fore- 
going work  in  this  way : 

"In  the  early  history  of  Christian  Science  among  my 
thousands  of  students  few  were  wealthy.  Now  Chris- 
tian Scientists  are  not  indigent;  and  their  comfortable 
fortunes  are  acquired  by  healing  mankind,  morally, 
physically,  spiritually !" 

The  italics  in  the  above  are  not  in  the  original,  but 
emphasize  the  fact  that  fortunes  have  multiplied  in  the 
hands  of  "Scientists,"  and  that  not  only  doing  good 
and  getting  glory  is  in  their  purpose,  but  to  reap  a 
harvest  of  commercial  values.  Though  money  is  noth- 
ing but  matter,  which  they  pronounce  an  "illusion," 
they  seem  to  set  a  great  store  on  possessing  just  such 
an  illusion. 


CHAPTER  IV. 
ANTAGONISMS  OF  "SCIENCE" 

As  has   already  been   seen,  in  Mrs.   Eddy's   mind  ™  J~ 
Metaphysical  Healing  was  a  growth  slowly  developed 
according  to  the  exigencies  of  her  need.     At  first  she 
was    a    spiritualist    and    a    mesmerist.     Taught    by 
Quimby,  manipulation   played   no   small   part   in  her 
cures.    But  her  mental  evolution  progresses,  and  when 
the  idea  begins   to  dawn  upon  her  that  she  herself 
is  a  prophet  of  a  new  revelation,  and  not  simply  the 
prophet  of  a  prophet,  she  begins  to  make  everything 
bend  to  her  own  ambition  and  glory.    She  apparently 
repudiates  a  miserable  past  and  covers  it  with  a  mask 
which  changes  its  lineaments  altogether.    As  she  was 
accustomed  to  break  her  friendships  to  suit  her  pur- 
poses or  convenience,  so  she  now  seems  to  part  com- 
pany  with   practices   which   militate  against   the   su- 
premacy of  a  system  she  is  to  give  to  the  world  as  her 
own  discovery,  and  which  will  exalt  her  as  the  original 
prophet  of  a  new  era  in  metaphysical  healing,  to  be 
labelled  by  her  "Christian  Science."     Little  by  little 
the  stupendous  idea,  the  vision  of  a  glory  to  be  told 
to  ceaseless  ages,  takes  form  in  her  brain,  and  with 
amazing  ingratitude  and  inconsistency  she  covers  and 
hides  the  sources  of  her  knowledge  and  the  scaffold  on 
which  she  is  to  rise  to  eminence  with  the  mask  of  a 

65 


66  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

divine  revelation.  God  speaks  directly  to  her,  His 
chosen  prophet,  and  she  calls  the  message  which  she 
declares  He  gave  her,  God,  the  Holy  Spirit. 

Listen  to  this  humble  prophet  of  her  own  mission, 
who  has  forgotten  all  about  Dr.  Quimby,  of  whom  she 
wrote :  "Quimby  rolls  away  the  stone  from  the  sepul- 
chre of  error,  and  health  is  the  resurrection.  But  we 
also  know  that  'light  shineth  in  darkness,  and  the 
darkness  comprehendeth  it  not.'  " 

In  reply  to  a  question  asked  her  by  Mr.  W.  W. 
Wright,  at  one  time  a  prospective  pupil,  about  the  year 
1 87 1,  as  to  whether  her  theory  had  been  advertised 
and  practiced  by  any  other  than  herself,  Mrs.  Eddy 
answered : 

"Never  advertised,  and  practiced  by  only  one  indi- 
vidual, who  healed  me,  Dr.  Quimby,  of  Portland,  Me., 
an  old  gentleman  who  had  made  it  a  research  for 
twenty-five  years,  starting  from  the  standpoint  of  mag- 
netism, thence  going  forward  and  leaving  that  behind. 
/  discovered  the  art  in  a  moment's  tunc,  and  he  ac- 
knowledged it  to  me;  he  died  shortly  after,  and  since 
then,  eight  years,  I  have  been  founding  and  demon- 
strating the  science.  .  .  .  Please  preserve  this, 
and  if  you  become  my  student  call  me  to  account  for 
the  truth  of  what  I  have  written." 

"Sound  morals  are  most  desirable,"  but  in  the 
prophet  of  a  great  cult,  that  opens  more  doors  on  the 
public  than  did  the  temple  of  Janus  in  ancient  Rome, 
many  contradictions  and  slips  from  the  exact  rule  of 
rectitude  may  be  excused.  When  the  mask  of  assump- 
tion and  prophetic  pose  is  withdrawn,  what  see  we? 


Antagonisms  of  "Science"  67 

Only  a  sinful  mortal.  Yet  as  plain  Mary  M.  Patter- 
son she  can  burst  into  song,  or  at  least  a  bit  of  rhyme, 
which  she  sends  to  the  Portland  Courier.  It  runs  as 
follows : 

SONNET 

Suggested  by  Reading  the  Remarkable  Cure  of  Cap- 
tain J.  W .  Deering. 

To  Dr.  P.  P.  Quimby 

'Mid  light  of  science  sits  the  sage  profound, 
Awing  with  classics  and  his  starry  lore, 
Climbing  to  Venus,  chasing  Saturn  round, 
Turning  his  mystic  pages  o'er  and  o'er, 
Till  from  empyrean  space  his  wearied  sight 
Turns  to  the  oasis  on  which  to  gaze, 
More  bright  than  glitters  on  the  brow  of  night 
The  self-taught  man  walking  in  wisdom's  ways. 
Then  paused  the  captive  gaze  with  peace  entwined, 
And  sight  was  satisfied  with  thee  to  dwell; 
But  not  in  classics  could  the  bookworm  find 
That  law  of  excellence  whence  came  the  spell 
Potent  o'er  all— the  captive  to  unbind, 
To  heal  the  sick  and  faint,  the  halt  and  blind. 

The  "light  of  science"  which  she  claimed  for  the 
simple  old  man  of  Portland,  which  "not  in  classics 
could  the  bookworm  find,"  nor  anywhere  else  except 
in  the  imaginings  of  ignorant  and  untrained  heads,  she 


68  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

is  now  about  to  assume  for  herself.  She  has  ceased 
to  be  the  prophet  of  a  prophet,  and  places  the  crown 
of  inspiration,  if  not  of  divinity,  upon  her  own  brow. 

When  the  idea  has  simmered,  evolved  and  shaped 
itself  in  the  secret  places  of  her  boundless  aspirations, 
she  boldly  attempts  to  make  all  things  accord  with  it 
and  to  weave  into  the  warp  and  woof  of  her  loom  the 
thread  of  consistency.  A  mystic  and  enthusiast,  un- 
consciously, it  may  be,  she  impulsively  and  intuitively 
takes  the  pose  demanded  by  the  needs  of  the  moment. 
Mrs.  Eddy  has  now  no  use  for  spiritualism,  mesmer- 
ism, clairvoyance  and  faith  cure.  Her  antagonism  to 
all  these  is  thus  expressed : 

"Mortal  mind  acting  from  the  basis  of  sensuous  be- 
lief in  matter  is  animal  magnetism.  ...  In  pro- 
portion as  you  understand  Christian  Science  you 
lose  animal  magnetism.  ...  Its  basis  be- 
ing a  belief,  and  this  belief  an  error,  animal 
magnetism,  or  mesmerism,  is  a  mere  negation,  pos- 
sessing neither  intelligence  nor  power.  .  .  .  An 
evil  mind  at  work,  mesmerically,  is  an  engine  of  mis- 
chief little  understood.  .  .  .  Animal  magnetism, 
clairvoyance,  mediumship  and  mesmerism  are  antago- 
nistic to  this  Science,  and  would  prevent  the  demon- 
stration thereof.  .  .  .  The  mesmerizer  produces 
pain  by  making  his  subject  believe  that  he  feels  it;  here 
pain  is  proved  to  be  a  belief  without  any  adequate 
cause.  That  social  curse,  the  mesmerist,  by  making 
his  victims  believe  they  cannot  move  a  limb,  renders 
it  impossible  for  them  to  do  so  until  their  belief  or 
understanding  masters  his." 


Antagonisms  of  "Science"  69 

Spiritualism  and  clairvoyance  come  in  for  special 
reprobation. 

''Spiritualism,    with    its    material    accompaniments, 

would  destroy  the  supremacy  of  spirit.     Clairvoyance 

investigates     and     influences    mortal     thought    only. 

Clairvoyance     can     do     evil,     can     accuse 

wrongfully,  and  err  in  every  direction.'' 

Faith  Cure  has  no  virtue  at  all : 

"It  is  asked :  Why  are  Faith  Cures  sometimes 
more  speedy  than  some  of  the  cures  wrought  through 
Christian  Scientists?  Because  faith  is  belief,  and  not 
understanding;  and  it  is  easier  to  believe  than  to  un- 
derstand Spiritual  Truth.  It  demands  less  cross-bear- 
ing, self-renunciation,  and  Divine  Science  to  admit  the 
claim  of  the  personal  senses,  and  appeal  for  relief  to 
a  humanized  God,  than  to  deny  these  claims  and  learn 
the  divine  way,  drinking  his  cup,  being  baptized  with 
his  baptism,  gaining  the  end  through  persecution  and 
purity.  Millions  are  believing  in  God,  or  Good,  with- 
out sharing  the  fruits  of  goodness,  not  having  reached 
its  Science.  Belief  is  mental  blindness,  if  it  admits 
Truth  without  understanding  it.  It  cannot  say  with 
the  apostle,  T  know  in  whom  I  have  believed.'  There 
is  even  danger  in  the  mental  state  called  belief,  for  if 
Truth  is  admitted  but  not  understood,  error  may  enter 
through  the  same  channel  of  ignorance.  The  Faith 
Cure  has  devout  followers  whose  Christian  practice  is 
far  in  advance  of  meie  theory." 

^  When  she  comes  to  test  her  theory  in  actual  prac-  contradictions 
tice,  Mrs.  Eddy  in  her  "Practice"  entangles  herself  in  and 
curious  and  often  amusing  contradictions.    Read  this,  AbsurdltIes 


70  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

and  consistent  with  Mrs.  Eddy's  principles  save  your 
grocer's  bills : 

"Gustatory  pleasure  is  a  sensuous  illusion,  an  il- 
lusion that  diminishes  as  we  understand  our  spiritual 
being  and  ascend  the  ladder  of  life.  This  woman 
learned  that  food  neither  strengthens  nor  weakens  the 
body — that  mind  alone  does  this.  .  .  .  Teach 
them  that  their  bodies  are  nourished  more  by  Truth 
than  by  food." 

How  is  the  testimony  of  the  senses  to  be  silenced? 
She  tries  to  do  it  in  these  words : 

"Admitting  the  common  hypothesis  that  food  is 
requisite  to  sustain  human  life,  there  follows  the  neces- 
sity for  another  admission  in  the  opposite  direction, 
namely,  that  food  has  power  to  destroy  life,  through 
its  deficiency  or  excess,  in  quality  or  quantity.  This  is 
a  specimen  of  the  ambiguous  character  of  all  material 
health-theories.  They  are  self-contradictory  and  self- 
destructive — a  kingdom  divided  against  itself,  that  is 
brought  to  desolation.  If  food  preserves  life  it  can- 
not destroy  it.  The  truth  is,  food  does  not  affect  the 
life  of  man ;  and  this  becomes  self-evident  when  we 
learn  that  God  is  our  only  life.  Because  sin  and  sick- 
ness are  not  qualities  of  soul,  or  life,  we  have  hope  in 
immortality ;  but  it  would  be  foolish  to  venture  beyond 
our  present  understanding,  foolish  to  stop  eating,  until 
we  gain  more  goodness  and  a  clearer  comprehension 
of  the  living  God.  In  that  perfect  day  of  understand- 
ing we  shall  neither  eat  to  live  nor  live  to  eat." 

One  of  the  writer's  followers  sweeps  away  difficul- 
ties in  this  fashion  : 


Antagonisms  of  "Science"  71 

"No  great  faith  is  necessary  on  the  part  of  the 
patient,  but  it  will  expedite  his  recovery  if  he  takes 
interest  enough  in  the  method  by  which  he  is  being 
healed  to  read  suitable  books  on  the  subject,  and  con- 
verse profitably  with  the  healer.  .  .  .  Prayer  to 
a  personal  God  affects  the  sick  like  a  drug  that  has  no 
efficacy  of  its  own,  but  borrows  its  power  from  human 
faith  and  belief.  The  drug  does  nothing  because  it 
has  no  intelligence." 

Again  the  prophet  attacks  the  facts  of  experience 
and  attempts  to  controvert  them.  Having  gotten  rid 
of  a  personal  God,  of  all  the  basic  credal  belief  of 
Christendom,  and  swept  all  matter  into  the  realm  of 
dreams  and  non-existence,  how  easily  her  pen  creates 
a  travesty  of  all  minor  details.  Of  poison  Mrs.  Eddy 
writes : 

"If  a  dose  of  poison  is  swallowed  through  mistake, 
and  the  patient  dies  even  though  physician  and  patient 
are  expecting  favorable  results,  does  human  belief,  you 
ask,  cause  this  death?  Even  so,  and  as  directly  as  if 
the  poison  had  been  intentionally  taken.  In  such  cases 
a  few  persons  believe  the  potion  swallowed  by  the 
patient  to  be  harmless,  but  the  vast  majority  of  man- 
kind, though  they  know  nothing  of  this  particular  case 
and  this  special  person,  believe  the  arsenic,  the  strych- 
nine or  whatever  the  drug  used,  to  be  poisonous,  for  it 
is  set  down  as  a  poison  by  mortal  mind.  Consequently 
the  result  is  controlled  by  the  majority  of  opinions,  not 
by  the  infinitesimal  minority  of  opinions  in  the  sick 
chamber." 


72  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

The  facts  of  the  action  of  poison  must  be  admitted. 
How  absurd  the  above  bundle  of  contradictions ! 

Absurdities  increase  as  the  student  follows  the 
prophet's  many  meanderings,  for  she  announces : 

'The  preference  of  mortal  mind  for  any  method 
creates  a  demand  for  it,  and  the  body  seems  to  require 
it.  You  can  even  educate  a  healthy  horse  so  far  in 
physiology  that  he  will  take  cold  without  a  blanket; 
whereas  the  wild  animal,  left  to  his  instincts,  sniffs  the 
wind  with  delight." 

Her  pupil,  Mrs.  Stuart,  exceeds  the  teacher  in 
climbing  the  heights  of  absurdity.  To  her,  long  years 
of  study,  generations  of  patient  investigation  of 
nature's  laws,  binding  the  golden  sheaf  of  wisdom  for 
the  instruction  of  mankind,  go  for  nothing.    She  says : 

"Materia  Medica  falls  back  upon  these  so-called 
demonstrations  of  Science  as  absolutely  indisputable 
proofs  of  its  theories.  Now  it  never  seems  to  have 
occurred  to  them  that  all  the  effects  witnessed  of  such 
experimenting  might  be  accounted  for  on  the  basis  of 
Thought ;  and  with  the  view  of  investigating  the  sub- 
ject to  establish  a  totally  opposite  explanation,  and  to 
show  that  Mind  acting  on  Matter  could  account  for  all 
their  facts,  the  following  experiments  have  been  re- 
cently made.  The  object  of  the  experiments  was  a 
dog,  a  noble  thoroughbred,  of  great  sagacity  and  intel- 
ligence. The  first  experiment  consisted  in  conveying 
commands  to  him  entirely  through  mind.  Not  a  word 
was  spoken,  but  his  mistress  would  say  to  him 
mentally :  'Carlo,  come  here,'  or  'Carlo,  lie  down,'  and 
although    the    thought    might    have    to    be  repeated 


Antagonisms  of  "Science"  73 

mentally  a  number  of  times,  yet  it  would  reach  him, 
and  sometimes  he  would  respond  almost  immediately. 
Second  experiment :  One  day  his  master  discovered  an 
appearance  to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  mange.  All 
the  dogs  around  were  having  it.  It  was  catching ;  Dr. 
So-and-So  had  pronounced  it  mange,  and  prescribed 
a  mixture  of  sulphur  and  castor  oil,  etc.,  which  was  to 
be  applied  externally  in  such  a  way  that  Carlo,  in  at- 
tempting to  remove  the  preparation  with  his  tongue, 
would  get  a  dose  into  his  system.  But  here  the  mis- 
tress interposed,  and  insisted  that  Carlo  should  be  sub- 
jected wholly  to  mental  treatment.  The  result  was 
entirely  satisfactory.  The  appearance  vanished  as  it 
came.  Again  the  experiment  of  placing  Carlo  en- 
tirely under  the  intelligence  of  his  master's  mind  and 
thoughts  for  a  certain  period  was  tried,  and  compared 
with  the  effects  of  leaving  him  wholly  under  his  mis- 
tress's mind.  In  the  former  case  he  soon  exhibited 
every  symptom  of  dyspepsia  and  indigestion  in  every 
form  to  which  the  master  was  subject,  and  in  a  very 
marked  degree.  But  under  the  thought  of  the  mis- 
tress every  symptom  and  appearance  vanished  at 
once."  (Why  did  not  the  mistress  let  her  mind  cure 
the  master  of  his  dyspepsia?)  She  goes  on  :  "He  soon 
attained  a  perfection  of  physical  condition  which  at- 
tracted the  attention  of  every  one.  Experiments  of 
this  kind  were  carried  much  further,  and  can  be  by 
any  one  who  wishes  to  test  the  matter  for  themselves. 
In  all  the  instances  just  mentioned  the  physical  condi- 
tion of  the  dog  responded  to  the  mind  under,  whose 
influence  it  chanced  to  be.     Love  and  fear — especially 


74  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

fear — are  the  most  marked  characteristics  of  the  ani- 
mal mind.  The  instances  are  innumerable  where  the 
instinct  of  the  animal  surpasses  the  reason  of  man  in 
detecting  the  kindly  thought,  or  the  thought  of  harm, 
toward  itself.  When  a  scientific  experimenter  gives  a 
drug  to  a  dog  it  is  done  with  a  perfect  certainty  in  his 
mind  that  disorder,  derangement  of  the  system,  suffer- 
ing, etc.,  in  some  form  or  another,  are  sure  to  follow. 
A  fear  corresponding  to  the  thought  of  the  man  in- 
stantly seizes  upon  the  dog,  and  various  results  do  fol- 
low. The  experimenter  notes  them  down  and  then 
proceeds  to  try  his  drug  on  dog  No.  2,  all  the  while 
holding  in  his  mind  an  image  of  the  results  of  exper- 
iment No.  1,  expecting  to  see  similar  results.  In  all 
probability  he  sees  them." 

Christian  Science  repudiates  the  need  of  surgery 
in  case  of  accidents  or  in  great  extremity : 

'The  fear  of  dissevered  bodily  members,  or  a  be- 
lief in  such  a  possibility,  is  reflected  on  the  body  in  the 
shape  of  headache,  fractured  bones,  dislocated  joints, 
and  so  on,  as  directly  as  shame  is  seen  in  the  blush 
rising  to  the  cheek.  This  human  error  about  physical 
wounds  and  colics  is  part  and  parcel  of  the  delusion 
that  matter  can  feel  and  see,  having  sensation  and  sub- 
stance. " 

But  here  Mrs.  Eddy's  argument  limps  and  halts : 

"Christian  Science  is  always  the  most  skillful  sur- 
geon, but  surgery  is  the  branch  of  its  healing  that  will 
be  last  demonstrated.  However,  it  is  but  just  to  say 
that  I  have  already  in  my  possession  well-authenticated 


Antagonisms  of  "Science"  75 

records  of  the  cure,  by  mental  surgery  alone,  of  dis- 
located hip  joints  and  spinal  vertebrae." 

Even  insanity  may  be  attacked.  No  wonder  that 
Christian  Scientists  talk  nonsense,  when  fed  with  such 
material !     Hear  it : 

"Listen  to  these  words  and  tell  the  sick  that  on  insanity 
he  suffers  only  as  the  insane  suffer,  from  a  mere 
belief.  The  only  difference  is  that  insanity  im- 
plies belief  in  a  diseased  brain,  while  physical  ailments 
— so-called — arise  from  the  belief  that  some  other 
portions  of  the  body  are  deranged.  The  entire  mortal- 
body  is  evolved  from  mortal  mind.  A  bunion  would 
produce  insanity  as  perceptible  as  that  produced  by 
congestion  of  the  brain,  were  it  not  that  mortal  mind 
calls  the  bunion  an  unconscious  portion  of  the  body. 
Reverse  this  belief  and  the  results  would  be  different." 

Reverse!  If  the  bunion  calls  the  mind  an  uncon- 
scious portion  of  the  body  what  a  revolution !  Smaller 
things  than  bunions  may  cause  insanity. 

In  lectures  on  the  pathology  of  the  central  nervous 
system  Doctors  Brown-Sequard  and  Holmes  recite 
the  instance  of  a  youth — fourteen  years  old — who  went 
to  bed  perfectly  sane,  nor  had  he  ever  had  a  symptom 
of  insanity.  The  next  morning  when  he  arose  and 
stepped  upon  the  floor  he  became  a  maniac.  With 
great  difficulty  he  was  replaced  upon  the  bed,  and  the 
moment  he  touched  it  he  was  sane.  During  the  morn- 
ing he  made  several  attempts  to  rise,  always  with  the 
same  result.  A  physician  was  called,  who  in  his  ac- 
count of  the  case  says :  "When  sitting  up  in  his  bed 
he  drew  on  his  stockings ;  but  on  putting  his  feet  on 


76  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

the  floor  and  standing  up,  his  countenance  instantly 
changed,  the  jaw  became  violently  convulsed,"  etc. 
He  was  pushed  back  on  the  bed,  was  at  once  calm, 
looked  surprised,  and  asked  what  was  the  matter.  In- 
quiry showed  that  he  had  been  fishing  the  preceding 
day,  but  had  met  with  no  accident.  His  legs  were  ex- 
amined minutely,  and  nothing  unusual  was  seen;  but, 
says  the  physician  :  "On  holding  up  the  right  great  toe 
with  my  finger  and  thumb  to  examine  the  sole  of  that 
foot,  the  leg  was  drawn  up  and  the  muscles  of  the 
jaws  were  suddenly  convulsed,  and  on  relaxing  the 
toe  these  effects  instantly  ceased."  After  further  ex- 
periment an  irritated  point,  so  small  as  to  be  scarcely 
visible,  was  taken  away  by  the  cutting  of  a  piece  of 
skin,  and  "the  strange  sensation  was  gone  and  never 
returned." 

A  trifling  piece  of  glass  has  made  a  boy  insane. 
Nervous  temperaments  are  subject  to  strange  disor- 
ders. Recall  Mrs.  Eddy's  own  history.  To  keep  young, 
to  never  grow  old,  is  in  the  range  of  the  prophet's 
glance.  Mrs.  Eddy  tells  how  this  has  been  done,  in 
her  estimation : 

"The  error  of  thinking  that  we  are  growing  old,  and 
the  benefits  of  destroying  that  illusion,  are  illustrated 
in  a  sketch  from  the  history  of  an  English  lady,  pub- 
lished in  the  London  Lancet.  Disappointed  in  love  in 
early  years,  she  became  insane.  She  lost  all  calcula- 
tion of  time.  Believing  that  she  still  lived  in  the  same 
hour  that  parted  her  from  her  lover,  she  took  no  note 
of  years,  but  daily  stood  before  her  window  watching 
for  his  coming.     In  this  mental  state  she  remained 


Antagonisms  of  "Science"  77 

young.  Having  no  appearance  of  age,  she  literally 
grew  no  older.  Some  American  travelers  saw  her 
when  she  was  seventy-four,  and  supposed  her  a  young 
lady.  Not  a  wrinkle  or  gray  hair  appeared,  but  youth 
sat  gently  on  her  cheek  and  brow.  Asked  to  judge  her 
age,  and  being  unacquainted  with  her  history,  each 
visitor  conjectured  that  she  must  be  under  twenty." 
Dr.  Buckley,  commenting  on  this,  says : 
'That  the  above  should  be  adduced  as  proof  of  any- 
thing would  be  wonderful  if  the  person  adducing  it 
had  not  previously  adopted  a  theory  which  supersedes 
the  necessity  of  demonstration.  It  is  important  to 
notice  that  if  the  belief  had  anything  to  do  with  it,  this 
amazing  result  grew  from  a  belief  in  a  falsehood.  She 
did  not  live  in  the  same  hour  that  parted  her  frommer 
lover ;  but  she  believed  that  she  did ;  and,  according  to 
Mrs.  Eddy,  this  belief  of  a  falsehood  counteracted  all 
the  ordinary  consequences  of  the  flight  of  time. 

"But  this  delusion  among  the  insane  that  they  are 
young,  that  they  are  independent  of  time  and  of  this 
world,  is  very  common;  and  the  most  painfully  para- 
doxical sights  that  I  have  ever  witnessed  have  been 
men  and  women,  toothless,  denuded  of  hair,  and  with 
all  the  signs  of  age — sans  teeth,  sans  eyes,  sans  taste, 
sans  everything, — some  of  them  declaring  that  they 
were  young  girls  and  engaged  to  be  married  to  presi- 
dents and  kings,  and  even  to  divine  beings.  These  de- 
lusions in  some  instances  had  been  fixed  for  many 
years.  Having  an  official  connection  with  an  insane 
asylum  for  five  years,  I  have  had  more  opportunities 
than  were  desired  for  conversing  with  persons  of  this 
class." 


CHAPTER  V. 
POWER  OF  MIND  OVER  BODY 

Great  and  startling  pretensions  are  put  forth  by 
Mrs.  Eddy.  She  demands  rights  and  privileges  for 
her  "Science,"  reaching  even  to  a  divine  attitude,  and 
thence  stretching  out  wings  in  benefaction  over  man- 
kind. By  these  she  appears  to  be  the  discoverer  of 
something  new,  the  recipient  of  a  special  revelation  of 
Deity,  and  thus  exalted  above  her  fellows.  But  the 
discovery  is  new  only  to  her.  Others  who  have  seen 
the  same  or  similar  things  have  not  set  up  the  demand 
to  be  considered  superior  to  their  fellows.  The  influ- 
ence of  the  intellectual  over  the  physical  has  long  been 
a  theme  of  serious  investigation  by  philosophers  and 
those  who  have  studied  the  peculiar  influences  of 
materia  medica  and  other  forces  upon  the  human 
body.  Just  as  prayer  is  ordained  of  God  to  be  a  force 
in  the  spiritual  universe,  so  faith  is  a  tremendous  fac- 
tor in  the  kingdom  of  the  spiritual,  and  a  force  in  the 
realm  of  the  physical  and  in  dealing  with  diseases  of 
the  body.  Pathologists  have  long  observed  that  faith, 
cheerfulness,  and  optimism  play  a  large  part  for  the 
better  in  the  sick  room. 

Dr.  J.  M.  Buckley,  the  author  of  "Christian  Sci- 
ence and  Mind  Cure,"  speaking  of  the  comparative 

78 


Power  of  Mind  over  Body  79 

successes  of  faith  curists  and  Christian  Science  heal- 
ers, says: 

"They  are  rather  more  successful  than  faith  healers 
for  this  reason:  with  the  faith  healers  it  is  generally 
either  an  instantaneous  cure  or  none  at  all.  And  an 
instantaneous  cure  cannot  be  made  to  apply  to  a  great 
many  cases,  and  what  is  supposed  to  be  such  is  very 
frequently  a  delusion  followed  by  a  complete  relapse. 
The  Christian  Scientists,  however,*and  their  congeners 
make  many  visits  and  give  nature  a  much  better  op- 
portunity without  the  destruction  of  the  patient's  faith 
in  them  by  a  failure  at  a  critical  juncture;  thus  it  hap- 
pens that  the  proportion  of  recoveries  is  more  numer- 
ous." 

Ages  of  experiment  have  proved  that  Doctor  Nature 
is,  after  all,  the  most  successful  practitioner.  The 
physician  can  only  in  specific  cases  afford  her  some 
assistance;  she  in  every  case  must  do  the  bulk  of  the 
work.  Mrs.  Eddy  herself  in  her  dabblings  into  many 
things  once  touched  upon  Homoeopathy.  She  diluted 
and  diluted  table  salt,  until  naught  was  left.  In  every 
case  it  proved  just  as  efficacious,  until  at  last  the 
dawning  light  worked  into  her  consciousness,  not  how 
great  Nature  is,  but  how  potent  Mind  is,  and  if  she 
could  cure  without  any  medicinal  property  in  her  pill 
or  powder,  why  not  let  all  needed  remedy  be  mentally 
administered  ?  But  this  was  not  new,  for  great  physi- 
cians had  seen  it  long  before  her  time.  And  num- 
bered among  the  very  foremost  are  those  who  have 
declared  that  they  paid  particular  attention  to  the 
mind  of  their  patients.     Sir  John  Forbes  in  1846  ad- 


80  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

vocated  "the  administration  of  .  .  .  non-perturb- 
ing medicines  in  all  cases  in  which  drugs  are  pre- 
scribed pro  forma,  for  the  satisfaction  of  the  patient's 
mind,  and  not  with  the  view  of  producing  any  dire  or 
remedial  effect." 

Mrs.  Eddy  says  that  she  teaches  the  art  of  healing, 
yet  she  boldly  announces  that  there  is  nothing  to  cure. 

"In  the  year  of  1866  I  discovered  the  Science  of 
Metaphysical  Healing  and  named  it  Christian  Sci- 
ence. God  had  been  graciously  fitting  me,  during 
many  years,  for  the  reception  of  a  final  Revelation  of 
the  Absolute  Principle  of  Scientific  Mind  Healing. 
My  conclusions  were  reached  by  allowing  the  evidence 
of  this  revelation  to  multiply  with  mathematical  cer- 
tainty and  the  lesser  demonstration  to  prove  the 
greater;  as  the  product  of  three  multiplied  by  three, 
equaling  nine,  proves  conclusively  that  three  times 
three  duodecillions  will  be,  must  be,  nine  duodecillions 
— not  a  fraction  more,  not  a  unit  less.  No  human 
pen  or  tongue  taught  me  the  Science  contained  in  'Sci- 
ence and  Health.'  " 

There  is  no  sin,  sickness,  or  death,  according  to 
this  woman's  often  repeated  statements.  Yet  part  of 
her  book  is  devoted  to  rules  for  the  mental  healing  of 
diseases  which,  according  to  her  expressions  else- 
where, do  not  exist.  No  wonder  that  the  ordinary  in- 
vestigator is  baffled  and  confused  in  the  attempt  to 
understand  her.  But  without  controversy,  let  it  be 
conceded  that  Christian  Science  has  effected  cures  of 
many  diseases  of  a  nervous  character.  Others,  both 
pagan  and  Christian  healers,  for  ages  have  done  the 


Power  of  Mind  over  Body  81 

same  things  these  Scientists  profess  to  accomplish. 
History  furnishes  abundant  proof  that  Mrs.  Eddy  has 
not  made  any  new  discovery. 

Both  the  founder  and  many  of  her  disciples  declare 
that  they  heal  just  as  Jesus  did.  How  did  Jesus  heal? 
His  cures  were  instantaneous.  Is  there  any  shadow 
of  record  of  His  giving  such  mental  treatment,  or 
absent  treatment,  as  their  codes  describe?  Jesus 
Christ  cured  immediately.  Concede  all  their  claims, 
yet  Christian  Scientists  do  not  do  that.  Their  mental 
gymnastics,  grotesque  and  mystical  as  they  are,  re- 
semble more  the  actions  of  the  African  or  North 
American  Indian  medicine-man. 

In  her  rules  for  mental  treatment  the  "Mother"  Exorcising 
gives  various  directions  for  what  a  pagan  would  call 
exorcising  disease.  Let  the  reader  remember  that 
there  is  no  sickness.  "If  you  mentally  and  silently 
call  the  disease  by  name,  as  you  argue  it,  as  a  general 
rule  the  body  will  respond  more  quickly."  "Plead 
the  case  in  Science,  and  for  truth,  mentally 
and  silently."  "You  may  call  the  disease  by  name 
when  you  mention  it  mentally ;  but  by  naming  it  audi- 
bly you  are  liable  to  impress  it  upon  the  thought." 
"To  prevent  disease  or  cure  it  mentally,  let  Spirit 
destroy  this  dream  of  sense.  If  you  wish  to  heal  by 
argument,  find  the  type  of  the  ailment,  get  its  name 
and  array  your  mental  plea  against  the  physical.  Ar- 
gue with  the  patient  (mentally,  not  audibly)  that  he 
has  no  disease.  Mentally  insist  that  health  is  the 
everlasting  fact,  and  sickness  the  temporary  falsity. 


82  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

Then  realize  the  presence  of  health,  and  the  corporeal 
senses  will  respond,  'So  be  it.' " 

Again  we  read  of  a  profound  and  "scientific"  treat- 
ment of  the  insane.  "The  treatment  of  insanity  is 
especially  interesting.  However  obstinate  the  case,  it 
yields  more  naturally  than  most  diseases  to  the  salu- 
tary action  of  Truth,  which  counteracts  error.  The 
leading  arguments  for  curing  insanity  are  the  same  as 
in  other  cases,  namely :  The  impossibility  that  matter 
should  control  mind,  or  suffer;  the  need  of  mortal 
mind  to  be  cured  by  Truth;  the  fact  that  mind  can 
establish  a  healthy  brain,  and  that  intelligence  can  de- 
stroy all  error,  whether  that  error  be  called  physical 
or  mental,  dementia  or  dysentery.', 

"To  fix  Truth  steadfastly  in  your  patients'  thought, 
explain  Christian  Science  to  them;  but  not  too  soon — 
not  until  your  patients  are  prepared  for  it — lest  you 
array  the  sick  against  their  own  interests  by  troubling 
and  perplexing  thought. " 

Cannot  one  see  the  effect  produced  on  a  raving 
maniac  by  explaining  Christian  Science  to  him  ?  That 
is  soon,  but  not  too  soon ! 

Christian  Science  says  there  is  no  such  thing  as  con- 
sumption, yet  "Science  and  Health"  gives  explicit 
rules  for  the  cure  of  this  disease  which  does  not  exist : 

"What  if  lungs  are  ulcerated,  God  is  more  to  a  man 
than  his  lungs,  and  the  less  we  acknowledge  matter 
or  its  laws,  the  more  immortality  we  possess.  Correct 
material  belief  by  spiritual  understanding  and  Spirit 
will  form  you  anew.     You  will  never  fear  again  ex- 


Power  of  Mind  over  Body  83 

cept  to  offend  God,  and  will  never  believe  again  that 
lungs  or  any  portion  of  the  body  can  destroy  you." 

If  sickness  is  merely  a  delusion,  then  death  is  a  de- 
lusion also,  and  ought  to  yield  to  the  treatment  of 
"Science."  Their  claim  is  that  even  death  has  in  one 
instance  given  up  its  prey  at  Mrs.  Eddy's  command. 
Many  mystical  creeds  have  held  out  this  hope  of  es- 
caping death.  Men  and  women  have  ere  this  thought 
they  had  discovered  the  secret  and  offered  their 
knowledge  to  their  fellows  at  a  good  price.  Thomas 
Lake  Harris  assured  an  expectant  world  that  he  had 
found  the  fountain  of  immortality  and  was  living  in 
the  spring  and  summer  of  the  new  existence.  While 
devoting  his  later  years  to  the  study  of  how  he  could 
best  impart  the  knowledge  of  his  wonderful  discovery 
to  his  fellows,  he  died.  Mrs.  Eddy  says  that  she  has 
now  reached  the  stage  where  one  enemy  to  life  has 
been  conquered,  she  is  immune  against  poisons.  If 
she  drink  any  deadly  thing  it  shall  not  harm  her.  Is 
this  a  stage  on  the  road  to  the  claim  of  immortality? 
Christian  Science  asserts  that  it  can  cure  cancer,  pneu- 
monia, smallpox  and  all  acute  and  contagious  diseases 
after  the  medical  practitioners  have  given  up  the 
patient. 

Some  Mind  Cure  leaders  want  their  patients  in  an  A  clalni  Not 
atmosphere  of  absolute  faith.  Mrs.  Eddy's  disciples  Carried  out 
proclaim  that  they  cure  without  faith  on  the  part  of 
their  patients.  Here  is  a  noteworthy  declaration  that 
may  challenge  observation.  Look  closely  at  the  as- 
surance that  faith  is  not  necessary.  A  clear  analysis 
will  reveal  that  it  is  all  in  vain.    There  must  be  some 


84  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

faith  before  the  mental  healer  is  sent  for,  and  often- 
times a  great  deal  of  it,  combined  with  distinct  or 
vague  distrust  of  other  systems.  Whatever  may  be 
said  of  the  attitude  of  large  numbers  when  the  cult 
began  its  demonstrations,  this  cannot  be  affirmed. 
They  have  a  constituency  developed  that  employs  no 
other  method.  If  what  they  claim  could  be  true,  there 
must  be  at  least  distrust  of  other  forms  of  healing,  or 
the  Christian  Science  healer  would  not  be  summoned. 
Where  there  is  no  faith  on  the  part  of  a  patient, 
usually  his  friends  believe  in  their  practice.  Thus  the 
atmosphere  of  faith  is  so  important  that  all  the  writers 
on  the  varying  forms  of  mental  healing  attach  great 
weight  to  it.  Perhaps  one  potent  cause  in  awakening 
faith  in  the  sick  is  the  sublime  audacity  of  the  prac- 
titioner himself,  who  without  drugs,  hygiene,  prayer, 
religious  ceremony,  or  manipulation  of  any  sort,  dares 
by  Mind  alone  to  attack  disease.  Such  a  spectacle 
would  produce  either  startling  and  vehement  opposi- 
tion and  contempt  or  an  abundant  confidence.  In  the 
presence  of  the  mighty  issues  of  life  and  death  a  man 
is  swayed  by  positive  convictions  one  way  or  another. 
Thus  whatever  "Scientists"  may  say  about  there 
being  no  need  of  faith  in  the  mind  of  the  patient,  they 
must  have  more  or  less  of  it.  The  sick  man  would 
not  send  for  a  healer  unless  some  faith  was  resident 
in  some  mind  outside  of  the  Christian  Science  prac- 
titioner. Certainly  the  patient  must  have  some  faith 
to  read  Mrs.  Eddy's  book  to  be  cured,  or  to  practice 
upon  himself  the  methods  of  her  healing.  For  she 
claims  that  people  have  been  cured  by  simply  reading 


Power  of  Mind  over  Body  85 

attentively  "Science  and  Health."  -  So  that  it  is  quite 
difficult  to  attempt  to  eliminate  on  the  part  of  the 
patient  faith  altogether.  "According  to  thy  faith  be 
it  unto  thee"  is  a  maxim  of  Him  whom  the  Christian 
Science  movement  says  it  imitates. 

When  you  come  to  compare  metaphysical  healing 
with  other  forms  and  systems  of  healing  you  will  find 
that  in  many  of  these,  from  the  practitioners  of  the 
most  scientific  and  approved  schools  down  through  all 
the  esoteric  and  eclectic  systems  not  acknowledged  by 
the  regular  schools,  much  attention  has  been  paid  to 
the  mind  of  the  sick  one,  to  the  awakening  of  faith 
in  some  person  or  method. 

A  case  in  point  was  that  of  a  lovely  young  lady 
confined  in  one  of  our  lunatic  asylums.  Her  mania 
took  the  form  that  she  was  especially  called  of  God  to 
do  some  great  work  which  had  not  yet  been  indicated 
to  her.  Mixed  up  with  this  delusion  was  the  habit  of 
fasting,  excessive  prayer,  and  other  harmful  practices. 
Months  passed.  She  waited  in  expectation  of  the 
summons  to  her  important  work.  It  came  not.  Her 
condition  grew  worse  rather  than  better. 

At  last  one  of  the  physicians,  deeply  interested  in 
studying  the  phenomena  of  the  influence  of  mind  on 
body,  thought  of  a  plan  which  might  prove  a  most 
powerful  stimulus,  which  he  trusted  would  react  upon 
the  body.  At  any  rate  it  was  an  experiment  well  worth 
trying.    It  might  be  termed  a  mental  operation. 

The  doctor  introduced  a  tube  into  her  room  without 
her  knowing  of  its  presence.     He   also  prepared   a 


86  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

strong  calcium  light  with  which  at  the  appointed  time 
to  flood  the  room  with  the  rays  of  intense  brilliancy. 

The  young  woman  had  not  walked  a  step  for 
months.  When  the  hour  came,  while  the  physicians 
of  the  institution  and  a  Christian  woman,  deeply  sym- 
pathetic with  the  girl,  were  present,  the  experimenter 
spoke  through  the  tube  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  in- 
forming the  girl  that  she  should  be  sent  upon  her  mis- 
sion, and  soon  return  to  her  home  to  acclaim  His  glory. 
At  the  same  instant  that  the  voice  sounded  the  room 
was  filled  with  a  radiance  surpassing  the  midday  sun. 

The  girl's  face,  with  the  simplicity  of  implicit  faith, 
was  lighted  up  with  a  joy  that  seemed  too  great  for 
mortals.  Those  situated  so  that  they  could  see  it  said 
that  hardly  ever  had  they  seen  such  an  expression  of 
seraphic  bliss. 

The  question  now  was  how  she  would  act  in  the 
days  to  come.  The  next  morning  she  came  down  to 
breakfast,  walked  the  length  of  the  hall,  continued  to 
improve  and  was  discharged  from  the  institution  prac- 
tically cured.* 

In  spite  of  the  loud  protestations  of  the  power  of 
mind  over  matter-nothing,  the  prophet  of  this  system 
has  had  to  pay  visits  to  her  dentist  the  same  as  an  ordi- 
nary mortal.  This  story  is  told  of  her  going  to  one 
of  the  local  Concord,  New  Hampshire,  dentists  for 
the  purpose  of  having  a  tooth  extracted.  The  Rev. 
Mr.  Whitaker,  it  transpired,  had  criticised  the 
"Mother"  for  so  far  going  back  on  a  prophet's  proc- 

*"Christian  Science  and  Mind  Cure." 


Power  of  Mind  over  Body  87 

lamation  as  to  have  a  tooth  extracted.     This  called 
forth  a  letter  from  the  dentist  which  is  quoted: 

The  story  told  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Whitaker  and  others,  to  the 
effect  that  Mrs.  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy  called  at  my  office  in 
Concord,  N.  H.,  in  great  pain,  and  had  a  carious  tooth  ex- 
tracted, requesting  me  to  use  a  local  anaesthetic  before  ex- 
tracting the  tooth,  is  incorrect.  Mrs.  Eddy  did  call  at  my 
office  and  had  a  troublesome  tooth  extracted.  But  it  was  not 
a  carious  tooth,  neither  was  she  in  pain  at  the  time.  She  did 
request  me  to  extract  the  tooth,  allowing  me  to  use  my  own 
painless  method  for  extracting  teeth,  which  I  had  recom- 
mended. 

I  shall  take  no  further  notice  of  enquiries  on  this  subject. 
Signed         John  M.  Fletchee. 

Concord,  N.  H.,  November  22,  1900. 

Now  follows  the  very  unique  and  sophistical  way 
in  which  Mrs.  Eddy  wriggled  herself  and  her  "Science" 
out  of  a  somewhat  awkward  situation,  if  any  dilemma 
can  be  awkward  to  a  Christian  Scientist  or  in  any  way 
unsettle  his  equipoise : 

"Bishop    Berkeley   and    I   agree   that   all   is   mind.  Explanation 
Then  consistently  with  this  premise  the  conclusion  is  !!*at  does  not 

,  *    Explain 

that  if  1  employ  a  dental  surgeon,  and  he  believes  that 
the  extraction  of  the  tooth  is  made  easier  by  some  ap- 
plication or  means  which  he  employs,  and  I  object  to 
the  employment  of  this  means,  I  have  turned  the  den- 
tist's mental  protest  against  myself;  he  thinks  I  must 
suffer  because  his  method  is  interfered  with.  There- 
fore his  mental  force  weighs  against  a  painless  opera- 
tion, whereas,  it  should  be  put  into  the  same  scale  as 
mine,  thus  producing  a  painless  operation  as  a  logical 
result." 

This  explanation  may  suffice  for  the  initiated  whose 


88  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

thinking  processes  whirl  around  the  maelstrom  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  mental  gyrations,  but  to  the  onlooker  and  cool 
logician  it  smacks  too  much  of  an  explanation  that 
does  not  explain.  One  of  her  followers  claims  to  have 
had  no  need  of  a  dentist  for  a  "carious  tooth."  Her 
friends  wanted  her  to  use  some  reason  and  good  sense 
and  go  to  a  dentist.  But  she  said :  "Let  me  give 
Christian  Science  a  fair  trial  first.  The  healing 
seemed  very  slow,  and  for  about  two  months  I  labored 
faithfully.  The  result  was,  indeed,  glorious,  as  I 
found  the  cavity  in  the  tooth  growing  up,  and  all  pain 
ceased,  neither  heat  nor  cold  disturbed  the  tooth,  which 
filled,  not  with  a  foreign  substance,  but  the  genuine, 
white  and  perfect.  My  friends  were  eager  to  examine 
it,  because  they  could  not  believe  without  seeing,  but 
they  were  satisfied,  and  error  stood  dumb  before 
Truth."*  The  lady  goes  on  to  say  that  she  is  "learn- 
ing that  the  entire  moral  dream  is  a  deep  dream 
cavity  of  nothingness." 

As  to  absent  treatment  so  much  vaunted  by  Chris- 
tian  Scientists,  these  in  all  Mind  Cures  proceed  on  the 
theory  that  to  think  with  concentrated  abstraction  of 
another  results  in  the  spiritual  presence  of  that  other. 
The  "living  image  and  inner  personality  seem  to  stand 
before  us,  and  what  we  say  to  it  we  say  to  him." 
Healers  endeavor  to  extend  this  phenomenon  so  as  to 
make  it  actually  annihilate  space. 

An  instance  Mrs.  Eddy  has  given  with  considerable 
pride,  as  a  demonstration  of  her  powers  in  absent 
treatment,  recounts  how  in  the  case  of  a  very  sick 

^Christian  Science  Journal,  Vol.  xvi,  page  758. 


Power  of  Mind  over  Body  89 

woman  her  husband  wrote  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  an  al- 
most miraculous  cure  followed  in  this  wise :  "The 
day  you  received  my  husband's  letter  I  became  con- 
scious for  the  first  time  in  forty-eight  hours."  What 
does  this  prove?  Simply  nothing.  Letters  similar 
have  been  written  and  the  patient  died.  There  are 
records  of  cases  where  treatment  has  been  given  by 
Christian  Science  healers  and  the  patient  died.  What 
does  it  prove  one  way  or  another?  The  coincidence 
of  the  letter  being  written  and  the  patient's  recovering 
consciousness,  or  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  receiving  the  letter 
and  the  patient  being  cured,  are  in  no  way  related. 
Instances  are  on  record  of  the  healer  invoking  the 
spiritual  presence  of  a  person  who  did  not  exist  or  who 
never  existed.  There  is  no  healer  of  this  class  who 
may  not  be  so  imposed  upon.  What  is  it  they  speak 
to?  If  in  case  of  a  hoax  being  played  upon  one  of 
them,  and  he  thinks  he  is  speaking  to  a  "spiritual  pres- 
ence" when  nothing  of  the  kind  exists,  is  not  the  in- 
ference clear  that  the  whole  business  is  a  delusion  and 
a  snare,  and  that  in  every  case  the  healer  is  talking 
only  to  "such  stuff  as  dreams  are  made  of"? 

As  has  been  previously  remarked,  in  all  forms  of 
Metaphysical  Healing  much  effort  has  been  expended 
on  the  mind  of  the  patient.  The  different  types  of 
metaphysical  healing,  while  showing  the  power  that 
mind  exercises  over  the  body,  also  demonstrate  the 
readiness  with  which  mind  may  trick  and  deceive 
itself.  Most  of  these  forms  of  Mental  Healing  are 
one  in  acknowledging  the  existence  and  reality  of 
matter. 


go  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

The  latest  claimant  among  these  aspirants  for  pe- 
culiar honors  is  the  so-called  Emmanuel  Movement. 
In  this  we  have  an  embryo  system,  acknowledging  its 
own  limitations.  While  relying  on  mind,  it  does  not 
repudiate  matter,  nor  does  it  scorn  the  patient  phy- 
sician and  his  science,  but  voluntarily  and  cheerfully 
co-operates  with  them.  It  has  much  in  common  with 
the  great  brood  of  Mind-Cure  propositions  that  have 
appealed  for  popular  recognition,  but  its  work  is 
within  the  Church  and  not  out  of  it.  It  avows  hum- 
ble dependence  upon  God  and  the  heritage  of  human 
experience.  If  it  is  to  prove  of  any  more  lasting  value 
to  the  world  than  the  multitude  of  its  predecessors, 
time  will  tell. 

It  is  not  the  object  of  this  work  either  to  discuss 
or  to  favorably  or  adversely  criticise  the  Emmanuel 
Movement,  but  to  refer  to  it  as  one  of  the  many  types 
of  Mind  Healing,  in  order  to  emphasize  the  fact  that 
Metaphysical  Healing  does  not  need  to  deny  the  per- 
sonal God,  repudiate  the  existence  of  matter,  or  found 
a  sect  of  its  own  to  find  scope  and  plan  wherein  to 
spread  its  wings  and  exercise  its  gifts. 

Stated  in  brief,  the  Emmanuel  Movement  seeks  to 
demonstrate  the  peculiar  power  of  mind  over  matter ; 
the  control  of  physical  ailments  where  such  are  caused 
by  the  mind  or  may  be  influenced  by  it ;  and  the  relief 
and  return  to  equipoise  of  the  mind  itself  when 
troubled.  Over  all  is  stretched  the  canopy  of  abound- 
ing faith.  From  three  separate  agencies  flow  the 
springs  of  the  mind's  effective  power :  Moral  Regen- 
eration,   Arousing    Suggestion,    and    Spiritual    Hyp- 


Power  of  Mind  over  Body  91 

nosis.  The  last  method  is  employed  gingerly,  and 
only  in  cases  of  certain  forms  of  mania,  alcoholism 
and  such  like,  with  the  co-operation  of  an  expert 
neurologist.  Jastrow's  "Sub-Consciousness"  has  been 
in  its  analysis  taken  as  the  scientific  and  philosophic 
basis  of  this  new  religious  school  of  healing.  It  is 
generally  acknowledged,  by  those  competent  to  judge, 
that  the  powers  of  the  sub-conscious  mind  are  mani- 
fold. They  flower  into  genius  or  pale  into  fragile 
visions  whose  fruitage  is  disease. 

Suggestion  is  made  much  of  in  Emmanuelism.  To 
be  successful,  suggestion  must  become  part  of  the 
life.  Reason  stands  guard,  a  God-given  sentinel,  to 
protect  the  citadel  of  man  from  all  outside  interfer- 
ence. It  calls  a  halt  to  all  overflowing  emotions  and 
defends  from  all  assaults  and  inducements.  Reason  is 
the  censor  that  passes  on  all  strange  ideas  and  sug- 
gestions. It  must  either  be  respected  or  ignored,  and 
somehow,  in  certain  crises,  its  hold  on  the  inner  life 
be  weakened.  So,  in  order  to  give  the  right  of  way 
to  the  needed  suggestion,  reason  and  consciousness 
must  be  held  in  abeyance.  This  may  be  done  when 
the  person  needing  the  help  has  full  confidence  in  the 
one  offering  the  suggestion.  Here  is  where  what  is 
called  hypnosis  comes  in.  It  does  not  effect  a  cure. 
Simply  the  way  is  prepared  by  it  and  hindrances  re- 
moved. The  thing  to  be  done  is  to  defeat  the  antag- 
onisms of  reason,  put  to  sleep  self-consciousness,  and 
prepare  the  way  for  the  suggestion  to  enter  the  depths 
of  our  sub-conscious  being. 

Now  these  may  all  be  strange  terms,  and  have  a 


92  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

weird  and  even  uncanny  sound  to  some,  but  the  thing 
they  represent  is  not  new.  This  is  the  way  the  mys- 
terious fascinates  and  captivates  the  mind.  Supersti- 
tion exercises  through  these  avenues  a  stupendous 
force  in  human  existence.  What  a  power  it  is !  We 
need  not  turn  to  Africa  or  India  for  illustrations.  The 
writer,  traveling  in  the  hills  of  New  Hampshire  one 
summer,  sat  on  the  box  with  the  stage-driver  as  the 
team  wended  in  and  out  and  up  and  down  amid  pros- 
pects of  enchanting  loveliness.  The  mountain  peaks 
seemed  to  summon  to  lofty  thoughts.  Aspiration 
pulsed  in  the  very  air.  But  a  toothache  troubled  the 
passenger.  The  obliging  whip  had  a  remedy  close  at 
hand.  "Look  here,"  said  this  Yankee  of  the  granite 
hills,  reaching  down  and  drawing  out  from  the  depths 
of  a  capacious  pocket  a  peculiar  bone.  "Look  here. 
Fifteen  year  ago  I  had  a  blazing  toothache,  but  I  got 
this  yere  toothacher  bone,  and  I  hain't  had  a  toothache 
since.    Use  ter  have  'em  lots." 

What  cured  his  toothache? 

Christian  Science  as  a  Mind-Cure  has  mingled  with 
it  much  of  error  and  superstition  with  a  modicum  of 
truth.  Its  philosophy,  we  have  seen,  has  within  it  the 
seeds  of  disaster.  We  conceive  only  faintly  the  power 
of  mind  over  matter.  God,  the  Creator,  has  set  the 
soul,  the  mind,  in  a  house  of  dust  and  bidden  it  be 
master  there  and  exercise  universal  dominion.  Now 
we  see  the  immortal  mind  not  yet  master,  but  limited, 
baffled,  perplexed.  No  wonder  Professor  James  feels 
it  is  time  for  psychology  to  do  something!  What  its 
last  word  will  be  who  may  say? 


CHAPTER  VI. 
THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  CHISTIAN  SCIENCE. 

Some  of  the  apparently  scientific  statements  of  Forerunners 
Christian  Science  seem  to  have  had  their  origin  in 
Gnosticism  and  Neo-Platonism,  which  played  an  im- 
portant part  in  the  early  centuries  of  Christianity.  "In 
every  age,  as  in  every  man,"  writes  Philip  Schafr", 
"light  and  shade  in  fact  are  mingled,  that  no  flesh 
should  exalt  itself  above  measure.  .  .  .  Even 
the  most  important  periods  have  heavenly  treasure  in 
earthen  vessels,  and  reflect  the  spotless  glory  of  the 
Redeemer  in  broken  colors."  Between  miracle  and 
fraud  lie  many  intermediate  steps  of  self-deception, 
clairvoyancy,  magnetic  phenomena,  hypnotic  signs, 
and  other  unusual  states  of  the  human  mind,  which 
is  full  of  deep  mysteries  and  stands  nearer  the  invisi- 
ble spirit  world  than  we  may  often  suspect. 

These  strange  and  mysterious  states  appeared  in 
the  first  and  second  centuries  of  Christianity  in  many 
effervescings  of  heathenism  attempting  to  wrap  itself 
in  the  warp  and  woof  of  the  Gospel,  and  gave  rise  to 
strange  minglings  of  pagan  philosophy  with  the  aspi- 
rations and  reasonings  of  Christianity.  It  may  be 
stated  without  controversy  that  Christianity  has  in  all 
ages  been  hospitable  to  truth  wherever  found,  and 

93 


94  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

many  Christians  in  the  first  and  second  centuries  felt 
that  the  splendid  manifestations  of  mind  in  philosophy, 
art  and  literature  had  not  bloomed  and  matured  with- 
out a  divinely  ordered  end,  and  that  they  were  predes- 
tined to  become  important  agencies  in  the  higher 
spiritual  development  of  the  race.  Here  in  such  a  situ- 
ation do  we  find  the  origin  of  Gnosticism.  The  world 
of  that  time,  as  the  world  of  our  day,  in  its  restless 
intellectual  activity  had  been  seeking  for  an  expla- 
nation of  the  antithesis  between  matter  and  spirit,  of 
the  ceaseless  conflict  between  good  and  evil.  It  was 
in  the  second  century  that  the  search  reached  the  fever 
of  its  intensity. 

Reason  and  faith  appear  in  an  eternal  conflict. 
Christianity  offers  a  solution  of  the  problem  of  life 
through  faith,  with  its  practical  results  of  pure  and 
happy  lives;  but  the  world  wants  a  philosophy  born 
of  reason  and  knowledge.  Over  against  practice  the 
world  wants  reason  and  theory.  Now  Christianity  is 
not  averse  to  reason  so  far  as  the  intellect  has  power 
to  reach.  One  of  these  efforts  at  mingling  philosophy 
and  Christian  faith  and  practice  resulted  in  the  tangle 
of  Gnosticism,  which  began  in  New  Testament  times. 
It  was  at  its  height  in  the  second  century ;  it  declined 
in  the  third,  and  in  the  sixth  it  had  run  its  course. 
What  was  it? 
Gnosticism  Gnosticism  took  many  forms,  but  there  were  some 

Defined  common  characteristics  in  most  of  them.     It  believed 

in  one  supreme  God,  dwelling  in  eternity;  that  all  mat- 
ter is  essentially  evil ;  that  God  is  opposed  to  matter, 
hence  a  dualism  in  the  universe ;  that  Christ  emanated 


The  Philosophy  of  Christian  Science  95 

from  God  and  liberated  the  spirit  from  matter;  that 
since  matter  is  evil,  and  since  contact  of  the  spirit  with 
matter  is  contamination,  Christ  could  not  have  a 
human  body,  consequently  His  sufferings  and  death 
upon  the  Cross  were  not  real,  but  only  an  appearance. 
Gnosticism  was  essentially  aristocratic.  It  claimed  a 
degree  of  enlightenment  that  the  vulgar  could  not  at- 
tain unto.  Thus  it  turned  to  mysticism  and  asceti- 
cism. It  became  very  soon  a  mingling  of  the  good  and 
bad.  Matter  was  the  source  of  evil.  This  on  the  one 
hand  led  to  the  strictest  moral  code,  and  an  abhor- 
rence of  the  sensuous;  on  the  other,  a  party  arose 
which  plunged  into  all  forms  of  sensual  excesses, 
claiming  that  as  matter  was  evil,  "nothing,"  to  over- 
come it  was  to  indulge  in  it ;  hence  arose  the  hated  sect 
of  the  Nicolaitans,  corrupting  the  pure  springs  of 
Christian  morality. 

The  teachings  of  these  Gnostics  remind  the  stu- 
dent of  the  words  of  the  founder  of  this  twentieth 
century  cult:  "Error  is  unreal  because  untrue — that 
which  seemeth  to  be  and  is  not.  If  error  were  true,  its 
Truth  would  be  error."  That  is  to  say,  a  lie  is  un- 
real, because  untrue — that  which  seemeth  to  be  and 
is  not.  Gnosticism  boldly  declared  that  redemption 
consisted  in  mere  knowledge.  This  was  followed  by 
high  intellectual  pride.  Redemption  was  only  for  a 
select  few — for  us  who  know.  This  aristocracy  per- 
ished in  the  presence  of  the  humility  and  universality 
of  Christianity. 

The  whole  history  of  philosophy  is  the  attempt  to 
solve  the  riddle  of  the  universe. 


96  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

In  the  opening  of  the  third  century  the  gospel  was 
thrilling  with  new  life  all  the  old  Roman  Empire. 
Neo-Platonism  had  its  rise  in  Alexandria,  where  the 
triumphs  of  Gnosticism  were  the  most  brilliant  in  its 
clash  with  the  purer  forms  of  Christianity.  The 
foundations  of  its  aspirations  are  laid  in  the  teachings 
of  Euclid  of  Megara,  a  pupil  of  Socrates,  and  its  basic 
principle  was  a  combination  of  the  Eleatic  conception 
of  Being — the  One  and  All — and  the  Socratic  concep- 
tion of  the  Good.  Plotinus,  the  greatest  exponent  of 
these  doctrines,  and  regarded  as  the  real  founder  of 
Neo-Platonism  in  the  Christian  era,  taught  that  the 
primal  essence — Principle — was  the  "First,"  "the 
One,"  "the  Good/'  "that  which  stands  above  Being." 
The  Good  with  him  was  the  same  as  God,  as  the  Rea- 
son of  Socrates,  as  Wisdom,  and  that  which  alone 
truly  exists.  Over  against  this  put  the  oft-repeated 
declaration  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  the  three  fundamental 
propositions  of  Christian  Science : 

i.  God  is  All.  2.  God  is  Good.  God  is  Mind.  3. 
God,  Spirit,  being  all,  nothing  is  matter." 

Another  point  of  resemblance  to  Neo-Platonism  and 
Christian  Science  is  exhibited  by  Prof.  Harnack  when 
he  says : 

"Never  before  had  real  science  and  pure  knowledge 
been  so  undervalued  and  despised  by  the  leaders  of 
culture  as  they  were  by  the  Neo-Platonists." 

Neo-Platonism  starts  with  a  transcendent  conception 
of  God,  from  whom  it  develops  the  universe  in  a 
series  of  emanations  or  overflowings.  Writing  of 
this  ancient  philosophy,  Prof.  Adolf  Harnack  might 


The  Philosophy  of  Christian  Science  97 

be  thought  to  be  giving  expression  to  views  on  the 
Christian  Science  of  our  time: 

'The  primal  Being  is,  as  opposed  to  the  man,  the 
One;  as  opposed  to  the  finite,  the  Infinite,  to  the  un- 
limited. It  is  the  source  of  all  life,  and,  therefore,  ab- 
solute causality  and  the  only  real  existence.  It  is 
moreover  the  Good,  in  so  far  as  all  finite  things  have 
their  purpose  in  it,  and  ought  to  flow  back  to  it.  One 
cannot  attach  moral  attributes  to  the  original  Being, 
because  this  would  imply  limitations.  Neo-Platonism 
may  be  described  as  a  species  of  dynamic  Pantheism. 
Directly  or  indirectly  everything  is  brought  forth  by 
the  One." 

Platonists  and  Mrs.  Eddy  agree  when  she  teaches: 
"In  Science,  Mind  is  One— including  non-mena  and 
prenomena,  God  and  his  thoughts.  Man,  the  infinite 
idea — nous— of  Infinite  Spirit;  the  full  representation 
of  Mind." 

The  highest  state  of  the  soul  is  reached  through  the 
contemplating  of  the  highest  being — the  One;  or,  in 
other  words,  it  is  the  philosophy  of  ecstasy.  Contem- 
plation, meditation  and  concentration  pass  into  an 
exalted  frame  where  the  soul  loses  itself  in  the  One. 
Porphyry  says  that  on  four  occasions  in  six  years 
Plotinus  obtained  this  ecstatic  union  with  God.  Neo- 
Platonism  bequeathed  to  the  world  "a  frame  of  mind," 
namely,  that  "the  blessedness  that  can  alone  satisfy 
man  is  iound  somewhere  else  than  in  the  sphere  of 
Knowledge." 

Gnosticism  led  to  the  ascetic  life ;  the  monk  isolated 
himself  in  mystic  contemplation  from  his  fellows.    The 


98  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

philosophy  of  the  Neo-Platonist  mixed  with  a  diluted 
and  degenerate  Christianity  produced  the  same  sort 
of  a  bloom,  the  plant  of  celibacy  as  a  passport  to  the 
joy  of  blessedness  of  the  higher  spiritual  being.  This 
same  weird  mysticism,  caught  in  some  way  by  their 
author,  pervades  nearly  all  the  pages  of  "Science  and 
Health."      Read    these    expressions    from   this    book : 

"God  is  good.  God  is  principle.  God  is  all.  Mor- 
tal existence  is  a  dream,  it  has  no  real  entity." 

"Now  I  ask  is  there  any  more  reality  in  the  waking 
dream  of  mortal  existence  than  in  the  sleeping  dream  ? 
There  cannot  be,  since  whatever  appears  to  be  mortal 
mind,  or  body,  is  a  mortal  dream." 

"The  mortality  of  man  is  mere  myth,  for  man  is 
immortal." 

"All  is  mind,  there  is  no  matter." 

"Matter  is  a  finite  illusion." 

Not  being  understandable  to  the  untrained  mind  of 
average  persons,  these  utterances  are  regarded  by  her 
followers  as  the  very  essence  of  profundity,  and  mark 
an  era  of  emphatic  inspiration.  And  all  the  time, 
when  they  gape  at  a  supposed  revelation,  they  are  too 
ignorant  of  real  history  to  know  that  this  thought, 
doctrine  and  philosophy  rose  long  since  and  kindled  a 
glowing  torch  that  centuries  ago  burned  itself  to  the 
socket.  Socrates,  Plato,  Plotinus,  and  hosts  of  bril- 
liant men  following  their  leadership  taught  the  essence 
and  flavor  of  these  things  long  before  a  restless  wom- 
an's mind,  stirred  by  a  disciple  of  Mesmer  and  the 
occult  whisperings  of  spiritualism,  framed  a  dream  of 


The  Philosophy  of  Christian  Science  99 

religion  and  metaphysics  mixed  with  crude,  far-away 
mummyfied  philosophies. 

In  the  middle  of  the  last  century  Bab  taught  a  re- 
vival of  Neo-Platonism,  in  so  far  as  he  declared  that  all 
beings  are  an  emanation  of  the  supreme  Being  into 
whom  all  will  ultimately  be  reabsorbed. 

Joanna  Southcott,  an  Englishwoman  of  Devonshire, 
a  domestic  servant,  thought  she,  too,  was  inspired  with 
a  divine  message  and  persuaded  herself  that  she  had 
supernatural  powers.  She  was  born  about  1750,  and 
in  middle  life  announced  that  on  November  19,  1814, 
she  would  give  birth  to  Shiloh.  But  Shiloh  failed  to 
appear,  and  she  died  on  the  29th  of  the  same  month  of 
dropsy.  Her  publications  are  all  equally  incoherent  in 
thought  and  deficient  in  grammar,  reminding  the 
reader  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  books.  Yet  she  numbered 
a  hundred  thousand  followers.  She  gathered  much 
money,  one  woman  bequeathing  large  sums  to  pay 
for  the  printing  of  the  Sacred  Writings  of  Joanna 
Southcott. 

We  have  seen  that  the  doctrine  of  celibacy  was 
prevalent  among  the  Gnostics  and  the  mystics  in 
all  ages.  One  of  those  modern  communities  was 
at  Tilton  only  a  few  miles  from  the  home  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  youth.  Mrs.  Eddy  differs  from  most  mystics 
in  permitting  marriage  until  Christian  Science  is  bet- 
ter understood  and  a  purely  spiritual  generation  is 
attained  unto.  But  Thomas  Lake  Harris  has  formu- 
lated and  taught  the  very  same  doctrine,  and  this  has 
been  urged  by  his  disciples  with  great  vehemence.  And 
just  as  Mrs.   Eddy  has  caught  the  spirit  of  ancient 


ioo  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

mysticism,  so  she  has  evidently  caught  the  trend  of 
present-day    mysticism.      Reasoning    from    supposed 
revelations  and  philosophy,  most  latter-day  prophets 
have  declared  their  Messiahship.     Swedenborg  made 
this  high  claim  for  a  little  while,  but  when  the  tempo- 
rary wave  of  insanity  receded  he  withdrew  his  pre- 
posterous aspiration,  and  as  prophet  of  a  new  dispen- 
sation   was    content    with    a   more    modest   program. 
Many  others  have  yielded  to  this  form  of  mystic  de- 
mentia and   loudly  asserted  lofty  prerogatives.     The 
best  thing  that  charity  can  do  for  them  all  is  to  deem 
them    possessed    by    an    obsession    of    hallucinations. 
Mrs.  Eddy  has  insidiously  attempted  to  make  herself  a 
sort  of  reincarnation  of  the  Christ.     She  claims  to  be 
without   sin   in  all   that   she   has  done   for  and  with 
Christian  Science.     Her  book,  she  asserts,  is  inspired 
of  God,  in  fact  is  a  revelation.     She  also  puts  forth 
the  astonishing  claim  in  the  very  spirit  of  Jesus'  words 
that  no  other   can   drink  of  the   cup  which   she   has 
drained  to  the  very  dregs :     'The  virgin  Mary,  Jesus 
Christ  and  the  author  of  Christian  Science  have  each 
their  individual  mission  in  the  world,  which  none  other 
may  do."     Thus  she  associates  herself  with  Christ  in 
a  way  that  would  indicate  to  a  plain  mind,  notwith- 
standing her  oft-repeated  declaration  that  she  is  not 
the  Christ,  her  high  aspirations.    The  Holy  Spirit,  the 
Comforter  promised,  she  has  no  hesitation  in  saying,  is 
Christian  Science.     Is  not  her  look  towards  deifica- 
tion, and  possibly  a  middle  place  between  Jesus,  the 
Redeemer,  and  the  Holy  Spirit? 


The  Philosophy  of  Christian  Science        101 

What  has  been  said  of  Christian  Science  teaching  in  The  «Reai» 
this  chapter,  and  a  large  part  of  that  which  appears  "nd  the„ 
elsewhere  in  this  book,  clearly  demonstrates  that  very  "Unreal" 
much    of   the   confusion    of    its    philosophy    revolves 

round  this  word,  so  often  quoted  by  its  followers 

reality.     They  speak  constantly  of  the  real  and  the 
unreal. 

This  much  must  be  accepted  by  an  ordinary  indi- 
vidual as  true,  that  all  our  thoughts  about  life  and 
the  world  around  us  must  be  founded  on  what  we  call 
experience.    We  must  have  some  sort  of  an  experience 
with  this  or  that  thing  before  we  can  think  about  it. 
When  we  speak  about  the  world  of  experience  we  are 
not  touching  on  a  transcendental  theme,  but  a  very 
matter-of-fact,    every-day   one.      The   objects   of   our 
experience,  the  things  nature  has  for  us,  the  persons 
we  daily  meet— these  are  what  we  must  fit  ourselves 
to.     We  cannot  ignore  our  environment  if  we  would. 
From  it  we  get  our  experience  of  what  life  is  like, 
and  he  who  learns  by  this  experience  to  adjust  him- 
self and  his  affairs  to  the  order  of  things  around  him 
reaches  the  highest   practical  wisdom.     The  sum  of 
knowledge   comes  to   us   through  contact  with   these 
things.     What  we  call  it  is  of  little  moment.    We  can 
use  the  words  real  or  unreal,  fact  or  dream,  just  as 
we  please,  but  one  thing  we  must  do,  we  are  com- 
pelled  to   recognize   it,   if   we   intend   to   live   in   this 
world. 

When  we  study  the  order  of  nature  around  us,  we 
find  that  things  exist  and  occur  in  a  certain  sequence. 
Experience  tells  us  of  a  law  that  governs  and  directs. 


102  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

We  may  say  these  things  are  not  real,  only  appear- 
ances, but  the  experience  is  just  the  same.  If  we  call 
them  illusions,  the  experience  is  real.  If  we  call  them 
nothings,  it  does  not  alter  the  experience  in  the  least. 
Call  flour  nothing,  water  nothing,  milk  nothing,  eggs 
and  butter  nothing,  spice  nothing,  the  pudding  that 
results  nothing.  Say  that  food  is  an  illusion ;  then  one 
illusion  gives  rise  to  another  illusion.  Man  is  an  il- 
lusion, food  is  an  illusion.  The  facts  of  experience 
are  just  the  same  whether  we  say  one  illusion  causes 
the  other  illusion  to  disappear,  or  simply  state :  Mor- 
tal man  eats  the  pudding.  Life  remains  just  the  same : 
its  laws  are  there,  and  we  break  them  at  our  peril. 

Prof.  Borden  P.  Bowne  has  this  to  say  of  experi- 
ence: 

"It  is,  then,  a  great  mistake  to  fancy  that  our  meta- 
physics is  the  source  of  experience,  or  that  it  in  any 
way  makes  the  experience  real  or  unreal." 

He  also  adds  with  great  vividness : 

"The  experience  remains  the  same  under  one  sys- 
tem of  metaphysics  as  under  another.  Thus  Berke- 
ley, Mill,  Hume,  Reid,  and  Hamilton  differed  widely 
in  their  metaphysics,  but  practically  they  had  to  live 
in  the  same  way.  Kant,  with  his  ideality  of  space  and 
time,  found  it  no  easier  to  get  around  the  world  than 
the  ordinary  realist  on  that  subject.  Berkeley  found 
his  butcher's  bills  and  his  grocer's  bills  just  as  im- 
portant a  matter  and  just  as  difficult  to  pay  as  Reid. 
So  on  the  plane  of  experience  we  are  all  alike,  and 
the  philosophers  cannot  help  us.  ...  If  the 
philosophers  can  do  anything  it  must  be  in  the  way  of 


The  Philosophy  of  Christian  Science        103 

interpreting  experience,  not  in  the  way  of  producing 
or  verifying  it.  In  this  sense  experience  is  real  and 
carries  its  truth  or  verification  in  itself." 

But  just  as  Mrs.  Eddy's  Mind  Healing  theories  arc  The 
metaphysical,  all  these  things  are  the  same  and  1g£gghle  a 
have  no  bearing  on  the  reality  of  the  experience 
we  may  have  from  day  to  day  with  nature  and  hu- 
manity. When  the  "Scientist,"  suffering  from  a 
jumping  toothache,  says,  "I  have  no  pain,"  what  does 
he  mean?  If  anything  except  a  silly,  or  mayhap  a 
soothing,  falsehood  occurs  to  his  mind  in  the  transac- 
tion, he  must  know,  in  his  sub-conscious  self  at  least, 
that  pain  is  an  actual  incident  in  experience.  It  is  not 
of  course  a  tangible  thing  like  a  stone  or  a  book. 
Smallpox  is  not  a  real  thing,  but  it  is  a  condition  of 
the  system,  and  its  symptoms  are  realities  in  experi- 
ence. Contagion  is  not  a  substance,  but  it  is  actual  in 
effect,  and  must  be  guarded  against  more  carefully 
than  an  enemy  with  cannon  and  bomb.  So  death  is  an 
event,  yet  for  all  that  it  is  supremely  significant  to  us, 
and  cannot  be  shunned  by  calling  it  by  another  name. 
Whatever  we  call  it,  whatever  our  metaphysics  may 
be,  it  is  a  condition  we  cannot  evade.  The  "Science" 
glossary  calls  appetite  an  illusion  and  food  an  illusion ; 
the  fact  is,  there  is  a  condition  there  that  must  be  met 
in  only  one  way,  by  filling  the  ache  of  one  illusion 
with  another  illusion.  So  through  the  long  category. 
As  we  investigate  these  things,  by  and  by  we  shall  see 
that  these  facts  of  experience  come  to  us  in  an  order 
and  sequence  that  we  may  not  escape.  We  do  not 
create  these  conditions,  we  cannot  get  away  from  their 


104  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

effects.  They  are  part  and  parcel  of  the  world  and  its 
laws  in  which  we  live  and  to  which  we  are  subject. 
New  names  do  not  alter  old  conditions.  Our  business 
in  life  is  to  adjust  ourselves  to  our  environment,  for 
as  long  as  we  live  here  we  cannot  get  away  from  it. 

The  Christian  Scientist  who  admits  this  differs  from 
the  rest  of  us  in  nothing  but  terms,  the  use  of  words. 
This  theoretical  divergence  is  in  the  realm  of  meta- 
physics. Metaphysics  is  a  very  difficult  theme  to 
wrestle  with.  Two  Scots  were  disputing  as  to  just 
what  metaphysics  might  be.  The  one  said  to  the 
other,  "Metaphysics,  is  it?  Metaphysics?  Weel,  ken 
ye  noo  yonder  bank,  the  holes  with  the  swallows  go- 
ing in  and  out?  Take  away  the  bank  and  leave  the 
holes — that's  metaphysics."  But  if  the  Christian  Sci- 
entist will,  we  must  leave  him  to  his  speculations  and 
the  holes. 

Our  Boston  philosopher,  Professor  Bowne,  has  this 
also  to  say  of  him : 

"If  he  insists  that  his  metaphysics  can  exorcise  a 
blizzard  or  quench  the  violence  of  fire  or  put  to  flight 
the  many  ills  that  flesh  is  heir  to,  or  do  away  with 
hunger  and  cold  and  pain,  then,  as  just  suggested, 
there  is  ample  room  for  decisive  experiment.  By 
keeping  this  point  in  mind  we  shall  at  least  escape  the 
confusion  that  arises  from  the  ambiguity  of  this  word 
reality,  and  we  may  have  a  chance  to  test  the  validity 
of  our  notions.  In  the  long  run  the  death  rate  seems 
to  be  about  one  apiece  for  all  of  us,  Christian  Scientists 
and  other  folk  alike/' 

Mrs.  Eddy  denies  that  her  system  teaches  Panthe- 


The  Philosophy  of  Christian  Science        105 

ism.  She  has  devoted  one  of  her  annual  messages  to 
the  Church  to  a  discussion  of  this  subject.  In  this  her 
idea  of  Pantheism  seems  to  be  derived  very  largely  Pantheism 
from  the  mythological  god  Pan.  She  makes  the  inter- 
esting statement  that  "Pan  in  imagery  is  preferable  to 
Pantheism  in  theology."  The  only  conception  of 
Pantheism  she  appears  to  have  is  expressed  by  her  in 
the  terms  of  the  Standard  Dictionary,  "The  deification 
of  natural  causes,  conceived  as  one  personified  na- 
ture." To  her  Theism  is  "belief  in  the  personality 
and  infinite  mind  of  one  supreme,  holy,  self-existent 
God,  who  reveals  Himself  supernaturally  to  His  cre- 
ation, and  whose  laws  are  not  reckoned  as  science." 

Just  what  the  last  clause  in  this  definition  means  it 
is  hard  to  say. 

Turning  the  page,  we  read  that  "Theistic  theological 
belief  may  agree  with  physics  and  anatomy,  which 
reason  that  the  universe  owes  its  origin  and  continuity 
to  the  reason,  intellect,  and  will  of  a  self-existent  di- 
vine Being  who  possesses  all  wisdom,  goodness,  and 
power,  and  is  the  creator  and  preserver  of  man."  This 
she  claims  is  the  doctrine  of  Theism.  To  this  she 
makes  exceptions.  First,  God  as  creator  is  dealt  with 
and  eliminated: 

"A  Theistic  theological  belief  may  agree  with 
physics  and  anatomy  that  reason  and  will  are  properly 
classified  as  mind,  located  in  the  brain.  .  .  .  But 
reason  and  will  are  human;  God  is  divine."  From 
which  we  are  shut  up  to  the  inference  that  God  has 
neither  reason  nor  will.  Her  teaching  is  that  God  is 
impersonal.  "God  is  All.  God  is  All-in-All."  "God 
is  Principle." 


106  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

In  the  very  next  paragraph  of  the  message  the 
"Mother"  seems  to  agree  with  Theism,  when  she 
writes :  "God,  Spirit,  is  indeed  the  preserver  of  man." 
But  lest  the  reader  should  perchance  draw  any  sensi- 
ble conclusion  from  her  words,  she  makes  it  plain 
that  to  her  no  human  devices  are  the  preserver  of  man. 
And  she  ends  this  paragraph  with  the  astounding  in- 
formation that  "All  things  were  made  by  Him — the 
Word.  What,  then,  can  matter  create  or  how  can  it 
exist?" 

Christian  Science  does  not  teach  Pantheism,  it  is 
claimed.  What  does  it  teach,  then?  Pantheism  said, 
God  is  All-in-All.  Christian  Science  says :  God  is 
All-in-All.  Pantheism  acknowledged  the  existence 
of  the  material  universe.  It  denied  the  personality  of 
God,  and  made  everything  in  the  universe  an  emana- 
tion or  reflection  of  Him.  All  is  God.  Christian  Sci- 
ence says  the  same  thing,  with  this  difference,  perhaps, 
that  it  denies  the  existence  of  the  material  universe. 
It  boldly  controverts  every  fact  of  existence  and  of 
experience,  and  in  the  terms  of  a  pure  Pantheism  says, 
God  is  everything;  All  is  God. 
"Science"  and  The  fact  of  Jesus  Christ  troubles  it.  What  shall 
Christian  Science  do  with  Jesus  Christ? 

The  Christian  Church  has  worshiped  Jesus  as  God. 
He  is  not  divine  in  the  light  of  "Science."  In  it  the 
philosophy  of  Jesus,  the  philosophy  of  the  Cross,  dis- 
appears in  one  vast  mirage  of  meaningless  contradic- 
tion in  this  modern  philosophy.  Jesus  died  for  our 
sins  according  to  the  Scriptures,  but  according  to  "Sci- 
ence" there  is  no  sin,  no  death,  no  need  of  a  Saviour 
who  is  the  Resurrection  and  the  Life. 


Christ 


The  Philosophy  of  Christian  Science        107 

Amid  the  fog  this  statement  stands  out :  "Does  not 
the  belief  that  Jesus,  the  man  of  Galilee,  is  God,  imply 
two  Gods,  one  the  divine  infinite  Person,  the  other  a 
human  finite  personality?"  Jesus  had  a  human  body. 
But  the  body  is  an  illusion.  It  does  not  exist  to  the 
writer  of  the  words  just  quoted.  What  does  she  mean 
by  a  finite  personality  ?  For  this  is  her  position :  "Sci- 
ence ...  is  strictly  monotheism  ;  it  has  One  God." 
Then  the  climax  and  keystone  is  added :  "Science  is 
not  Pantheism,  but  Christian  Science." 

Its  philosophy  is  the  philosophy  of  perversion  and 
negation.  It  asks  its  disciples  to  take  as  a  philosophy 
of  life  the  wriggling  of  the  serpent  and  sophistries 
that  impeach  reason,  fact,  and  testimony,  and  with  an 
assumption  that  touches  the  foolhardiness  of  blas- 
phemy declares  that  Christian  Science  is  the  Holy 
Spirit — Christian  Science  is  God. 

The  Christian  Scientist  proudly  points  to  the  vic- 
tories his  theories  achieve  over  that  persistent  and 
prickly  god  of  Worry.  No  member  of  the  cult  wor- 
ships at  his  altars.  They  seemingly  forget  that  the 
old  Gospel  is  one  continuous  protest  against  slavery 
to  worry.  Its  message  of  peace  and  good  will  is  a  call 
to  freedom  from  the  fret  and  carking  care  of  this 
world.  He  who  said,  "Come  unto  Me,  and  I  will  give 
you  rest,"  said  to  this  devil,  "Get  thee  behind  me." 
No  wrinkle  of  worry  ever  invades  the  fairness  of  His 
brow.  The  heart  of  Christianity  is  tranquillity  and 
peace.  Others  beside  "Scientists"  have  found  the  se- 
cret and  rejoiced  in  it. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

BIBLE  VERITIES  AND  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 
VAPORINGS. 

parallels  and  This  chapter  will  discuss  the  relationship  of  the 
nergencies  ^QQ^.  "Science  and  Health"  to  the  Word  of  God,  and 
the  doctrines  of  the  cult  to  the  accepted  beliefs  of  the 
Evangelical  Churches.  It  may  be  said  that  in  many 
particulars  Mrs.  Eddy's  teachings  cannot  be  distin- 
guished from  the  truths  taught  by  the  established 
churches  of  Evangelical  faith.  This  is  so,  but  in  other 
particulars  there  is  such  a  wide  divergence,  and  so 
glaring  an  attempt  to  discredit  God's  Word  in  its  en- 
tirety, that  one  would  blush  to  think  of  such  fallacious 
statements  being  associated  with  Christianity  and  the 
great  Master  who  spake  as  never  man  spake,  and  in 
Himself  manifested  the  fullness  of  the  Father's  glory. 
In  the  preface  to  her  book  the  prophet  of  "Science" 
sets  forth  that  "The  divine  principle  of  healing  is 
proved  in  the  personal  experience  of  any  sincere  seeker 
of  Truth.  .  .  .  No  intellectual  proficiency  is  re- 
quired in  the  learner,  but  sound  morals  are  most  de- 
sirable." In  the  study  of  this  book  one  will  find  that 
"intellectual  proficiency"  is  best  honored  by  its  absence. 

How  Jesus  Mrs.  Eddy  continues  in  the  preface  to  say  that  Jesus 

healed  "from  the  operation  of  divine  principle";  but 
Jesus  healed  in  the  mightiness  of  his  divine  person- 
ality.    She  controverts  the  supernatural  dements  in 

108 


Bible  Verities  and  "Science"  Vaporings      109 

Christ's  works :  'These  mighty  works  are  not  super- 
natural, but  supremely  natural."  In  the  case  of  the 
man  sick  of  the  palsy  did  not  Jesus  use  supernatural 
power?  Was  it  natural  for  a  sinful  man  to  say  unto 
sinful  man,  "Thy  sins  are  forgiven  thee"?  But  He 
was  good.     There  is  none  good  but  God. 

Compare  with  Christian  Science  methods  the  inci- 
dent of  the  healing  of  the  man  sick  of  the  palsy : 

They  brought  to  him  a  man  sick  of  the  palsy,  lying  on  a 
bed:  and  Jesus  seeing  their  faith  said  unto  the  sick  of  the 
Pa  ty,j°u\  bf,0f  good  cheer'  thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee. 

And,  behold  certain  of  the  scribes  said  within  themselves, 
I  his  man  blasphemeth.  ' 

And  Jesus  knowing  their  thoughts  said,  Wherefore  think  ye 
evil  in  your  hearts? 

For  whether  is  easier,  to  say,  Thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee- 
or  to  say,  Arise,  and  walk?  to  ' 

mSM??  ^  may  kn/°u  that-the  Son  of  man  hath  Power  on 
earth  to  forgive  sins  (then  saith  he  to  the  sick  of  the  palsy) 
Arise   take  up  thy  bed,  and  go  unto  thine  house  P     7)' 

And  he  arose,  and  departed  to  his  house.— Matt.  9 :  2-7. 

There  is  no  trace  here  of  any  long  mental  process; 
there  is  no  suggestion  of  Christian  Science  methods. 
The  act  transcended  the  natural.  The  divine  Father 
can  forgive  sins.  That  they  might  know  the  Son  of 
Man  had  power  on  earth  to  forgive  sin,  Christ  per- 
formed the  miracle  of  healing.  The  cure  was  in- 
stantaneous.   Did  He  deny  sin? 

_    Christian  Science  says  there  is  no  sin.    Hence,  there  No  sm 
is  nothing  to  repent  of,  nothing  from  which   to  be 
saved. 

The  inspired  John  proclaims : 


no  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

If  we  say  that  we  have  no  sin,  we  deceive  ourselves,  and 
the  truth  is  not  in  us. 

If  we  confess  our  sins,  He  is  faithful  and  just  to  forgive 
us  our  sins,  and  to  cleanse  us  from  all  unrighteousness^ 

If  we  say  that  we  have  not  sinned,  we  make  Him  a  liar,  and 
His  word  is  not  in  us. — I  John  1 : 8-10. 

Mrs.  Eddy  says:  "Our  Master  healed  the  sick 
.  .  .  taught  the  generalities  of  its  divine  Science 
principles  to  his  students;  but  He  left  no  definite  rule 
for  demonstrating  his  principles  of  healing  and  pre- 
venting disease.  This  remained  to  be  discovered 
through  Christian  Science."  That  is,  Christian  Sci- 
ence is  an  improvement  on  the  Word  of  God;  its 
founder  is  something  more  than  the  divine  Master 
whom  Christians  reverence  as  the  very  God  of  very 
God,  the  manifestation  of  the  Father's  presence  and 
the  fulness  of  His  glory ! 
Pounder  of  a  Now  she  blows  the  trumpet  of  a  new  revelation.  Is 
church  tjie  following  quotation  poetry,  or  the  outcome  of  an 

imagination  self-deluded  and  dreaming  the  shadowy 
substance  of  mere  dreams?  It  is  taken  from  "Mis- 
cellaneous Writings" : 

"Above  the  fogs  of  sense  and  storms  of  passion 
Christian  Science  and  its  arts  will  rise  triumphant. 
.  .  .  Angels  with  overtures  hold  charge  over  both, 
and  announce  their  principle  and  idea. 

"No  works  similar  to  mine  on  Christian  Science 
existed  prior  to  my  discovery  of  this  Science.  Before 
the  publication  of  my  first  work  on  this  subject  a  few 
manuscripts  of  mine  were  in  circulation.  The  dis- 
covery and  founding  of  Christian  Science  has  cost  me 
more  than  thirty  years  of  unremitting  toil  and  unrest ; 


Bible  Verities  and  "Science"  Vaporings      in 

but,  comparing  those  with  the  joy  of  knowing  that  the 
sinner  is  helped  upward,  that  time  and  eternity  bear 
witness  to  this  gift  of  God  to  the  race,  I  am  the 
debtor." 

This  woman,  rivaling  Jesus,  has  founded  her  church. 
"Until  I  founded  a  church  of  my  own,"  she  says. 
Again  she  writes  of  it : 

"In  1895  I  ordained  the  Bible  and  'Science  and 
Health;  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures/  the  Christian 
Science  text-book,  as  the  pastor  on  this  planet  of  all 
the  churches  of  the  Christian  Science  denomination. 
.  .  .  Whenever  and  wherever  a  church  of  Chris- 
tian Science  is  established  its  pastor  is  the  Bible  and 
my  Book. 

"In  1896  .  .  .  Christian  Science  is  founded  by 
its  discoverer,  and  built  upon  the  Rock  of  Christ.  The 
elements  of  earth  beat  in  vain  against  the  immortal 
parapets  of  this  Science.  Erect  and  eternal  it  will  go 
on  with  the  ages,  go  down  the  dim  posterns  of  time 
unharmed,  and  on  every  battlefield  rise  higher  in  the 
estimation  of  thinkers  and  in  the  hearts  of  Christians." 

The  Gospel  of  Jesus  says  : 

And  Simon  Peter  answered  and  said,  Thou  art  the  Christ, 
the  Son  of  the  living  God. 

And  Jesus  answered  and  said  unto  him,  Blessed  art  thou, 
bimon  Bar-jona:  for  flesh  and  blood  hath  not  revealed  it  unto 
thee,  but  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven. 

And  I  say  also  unto  thee,  That  thou  art  Peter,  and  upon  this 
rock  1  will  build  my  church ;  and  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not 
prevail  against  it— Matt.  16:16-18. 

This  founder  of  a  church,  this  prophet  of  a  cult,  has, 
when  brought   to  bay,  disclaimed  any  aspirations  of 


112 


The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 


being  termed  a  second  Christ  or  of  sharing  equality 
with  Jesus,  but  does  not  her  language  remind  one  of 
the  boast  of  a  long-dead  king : 


Claiming 

Divine 

Inspiration 


All  this  came  upon  the  king  Nebuchadnezzar. 

At  the  end  of  twelve  months  he  walked  in  the  palace  of  the 
kingdom  of  Babylon. 

The  king  spake,  and  said,  Is  not  this  great  Babylon,  that  I 
have  built  for  the  house  of  the  kingdom  by  the  might  of  my 
power,  and  for  the  honor  of  my  majesty? — Daniel  4:28-30. 

Mrs.  Eddy  claims  a  divine  inspiration.  Her  fol- 
lowers believe  that  she  received  the  truths  of  Chris- 
tian Science  as  a  direct  revelation  from  God.  Not- 
withstanding the  founder's  connection  with  the  hum- 
ble healer  of  Portland,  and  her  oft-repeated  state- 
ments of  obligation  to  Quimby,  which  have  been  as 
well  established  as  any  historical  events  ever  were  in 
this  world,  Christian  Scientists  repudiate  even  a  sug- 
gestion of  these  facts.  Their  endeavor  is  to  prove  the 
same  sort  of  a  revelation  for  this  bundle  of  curious 
assertions,  often  contradictory,  as  shines  in  Holy  Writ. 
Her  revelation  was  given  to  fulfil  and  complete  the 
revelation  and  mission  of  Jesus  Christ.  "What  I  am 
it  is  for  God  to  declare  in  His  infinite  mercy." 

"No  person  can  take  the  place  of  the  Virgin  Mary," 
Mrs.  Eddy  writes  in  "Retrospection  and  Introspec- 
tion." "No  person  can  compass  or  fulfil  the  individual 
mission  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  No  person  can  take  the 
place  of  the  author  of  'Science  and  Health,'  the  dis- 
coverer and  founder  of  Christian  Science.  Each  indi- 
vidual must  fill  his  own  niche  in  time  and  eternitv 
The  second  appearing  of  Jesus  is  unquestionably  the 


Bible  Verities  and  "Science"  Vapo^ngs      113 

spiritual  advent  of  the  advancing  idea  of  God  as  in 
Christian  Science.'" 

The  definition  of  God  in  "Science  and  Health,"  un-  God  Defined 

d.QC  the  head  of  "Science,  Theology,  Medicine,"  is : 
"God  is  All-in- All,  God  is  Good.  God  is  mind.  God, 
Spirit,  being  all,  nothing  is  matter." 

Again,  under  th?  heading,  "Scientific  Translation 
of  Immortal  Mind,"  may  be  read  these  definitions : 

"God:  Divine  Principle,  Life,  Truth,  Love,  Soul, 
Spirit,  Mind. 

"Man:  God's  spiritual  idea,  individual,  perfect, 
eternal. 

"Idea:  An  image  in  Mind;  the  immediate  object 
of  understanding." 

To  this  author  God  is  not  a  person.  She  denies 
that  her  system  includes  and  teaches  Pantheism,  yet 
her  words  distinctly  imply  it,  while  she  does  not  want 
to  be  so  understood.  This  teaching  is  opposed  to  the 
plain  utterance  of  God's  Word.  Of  the  first  series  of 
propositions  quoted  above  this  prophet  declares :  "The 
reverse  of  these  propositions  will  be  found  to  agree  in 
statement  and  proof."  A  marginal  note,  supposedly 
with  the  cognition  of  the  author,  reads,  "Reversible 
Propositions."    Look  at  them  reversed: 

1.  All-in-All  is  God. 

2.  Good  is  God.     Mind  is  God. 

3.  Spirit,  God,  All  Being,  Matter  is  Nothing. 

If  this  is  not  undiluted  nonsense,  if  it  teaches  any- 
thing at  all,  it  is  a  simple  and  crude  Pantheism. 

"God  is  Divine  Principle,"  is  the  teaching  of  "Sci- 
ence."    To  confound  a  person  with  an  attribute  is  to 


U4  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

introduce  endless  folly  into  our  thinking.  God  is 
good,  and  God  is  love,  it  is  true.  G-vxlness  and  love 
are  attributes  of  God ;  they  form  a  part  of  his  charac- 
ter, but  they  are  not  all  of  God ;  they  are  not  God. 

Jesus  teaches  that  God  is  a  person.  He  is  clothed 
with  personality.  The  charge  that  Mrs.  Eddy  brings 
that  the  Christian  Church  believes  God  is  corporeal 
and  is  only  a  gigantic  man,  is  untrue.  She  confounds 
personality  and  corporeality. 

The  Westminster  Confession  says:  "God  is  a 
Spirit,  infinite,  eternal  and  unchangeable  in  his  being, 
wisdom,  power,  holiness,  justice,  goodness,  and  truth." 

The  writers  of  the  Confession  believed  that  spirit 
and  matter  are  both  real.  While  spirit  may  dwell  in 
close  union  with  matter,  and  matter  be  closely  allied 
with  spirit,  each  are  distinct  entities. 

The  New  Testament  God  is  a  Spirit: 


But  the  hour  cometh,  and  now  is,  when  the  true  worship- 
pers shall  worship  the  Father  in  spirit  and  in  truth:  for  the 
Father  seeketh  such  to  worship  him. 

God  is  a  Spirit:  and  they  that  worship  him  must  worship 
him  in  spirit  and  in  truth.— John  4:  23,  24. 

Now  the  Lord  is  that  Spirit:  and  where  the  Spirit  of  the 
Lord  is,  there  is  liberty. 

But  we  all,  with  open  face  beholding  as  in  a  glass  the  glory 
of  the  Lord,  are  changed  into  the  same  image  from  glory  to 
glory,  even  as  by  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord.— 2  Cor.  3:17,  J8. 

Jesus  Christ  taught  that  matter  was  real  and  not  a 
figment,  dream,  or  shadow.  Mrs.  Eddy  says  that  mat- 
ter is  unreal  and  only  reflects,  or  is  a  reflection  of,  an 
idea  of  God.  Her  reiterated  statement  is :  "Matter  is 
nothing,  that  is  just  what  I  call  matter,  nothing." 


Bible  Verities  and  "Science"  Vaporings      115 

Jesus  says: 

Therefore  I  say  unto  you,  Take  no  thought  for  your  life, 
what  ye  shall  eat,  or  what  ye  shall  drink;  nor  yet  for  your 
body,  what  ye  shall  put  on.  Is  not  the  life  more  than  meat, 
and  the  body  than  raiment?     .     .     . 

If  God  so  clothe  the  grass  of  the  field,  which  to-day  is,  and 
to-morrow  is  cast  into  the  oven,  shall  he  not  much  more 
clothe  you,  O  ye  of  little  faith? 

Therefore  take  no  thought,  saying,  What  shall  we  eat?  or, 
What  shall  we  drink?  or,  Wherewithal  shall  we  be  clothed? 

(For  after  all  these  things  do  the  Gentiles  seek:)  for  your 
heavenly  Father  knoweth  that  ye  have  need  of  all  these 
things. — Matt.  6:  25,  30-32. 

If  ye  then,  being  evil,  know  how  to  give  good  gifts  unto 
your  children,  how  much  more  shall  your  Father  which  is  in 
heaven  give  good  things  to  them  that  ask  him? — Matt.  7:11. 

Jesus'  teaching  is  that  the  personal  All-Father,  who 
ministers  to  His  children  in  material  benefits,  also 
gives  them  the  highest  spiritual  good. 

Christian  Science  proclaims  itself  sufficient  to  inter-  ImproV|nK 
pret  to  humanity  the  middle  ground  between  the  seen  Paul 
and  the  unseen  and  eternal.     "Science  and   Health" 
continues  the  teaching  of  St.  Paul ;  or,  in  other  words, 
Mrs.  Eddy  is  a  betterment  on  St.  Paul.     What  may 
this  mean : 

"St.  Paul  first  reasons  upon  the  basis  of  what  is 
seen,  the  effects  of  Truth  upon  the  material  senses, 
thence  up  to  the  unseen,  the  testimony  of  spiritual 
sense;  and  right  here  he  leaves  the  subject." 

Paul  saw  only  two  things,  the  seen  and  the  unseen, 
but  it  remained  for  Mrs.  Eddy  to  improve  upon  Paul. 
He  says : 

While  we  look  not  at  the  things  which  are  seen,  but  at  the 
things  which  are  not  seen :  for  the  things  which  are  seen  are 
temporal ;  but  the  things  which  are  not  seen  are  eternal. 


n6 


The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 


For  we  know  that,  if  our  earthly  house  of  this  tabernacle 
were  dissolved,  we  have  a  building  of  God,  a  house  not  made 
with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens.     .     .     . 

Therefore  we  are  always  confident,  knowing  that,  whilst 
we  are  at  home  in  the  body,  we  are  absent  from  the  Lord. — 
2  Cor.  4 :  18—5 :  1,  6. 

She  says: 

"Just  there,  in  the  intermediate  line  of  thought,  is 
where  the  present  writer  found  it  when  she  discovered 
Christian  Science,  and  she  has  not  left  it,  but  con- 
tinues the  explanation  of  the  power  of  Spirit  up  to  its 
infinite  meaning,  its  Allness." 

Paul  stood  in  the  midst  of  the  howling  of  a  real 
storm  and  cried,  "I  believe  in  God."  He  believed  in  a 
personal  God. 


Christ 

"Seem 
Death 


's 
ins" 


(For  we  walk  by  faith,  not  by  sight:) 

We  are  confident,  I  say,  and  willing  rather  to  be  absent 
from  the  body,  and  to  be  present  with  the  Lord. 

Wherefore  we  labor,  that,  whether  present  or  absent,  we 
may  be  accepted  of  him. 

For  we  must  all  appear  before  the  judgment  seat  of  Christ; 
that  every  one  may  receive  the  things  done  in  his  body,  ac- 
cording to  that  he  hath  done,  whether  it  be  good  or  bad. — 
2  Cor.  5  :  7-10. 

Jesus  had  a  real  body.  Mrs.  Eddy  says  He  had  not 
a  real  body.  In  "Science  and  Health"  she  says  that 
the  death  of  Jesus  was  not  a  real  death,  but  a  seem- 
ing death  only.  The  Scriptures  say  that  Christ  died 
for  our  sins.  She  proclaims  that  his  phantom  being 
in  the  world  was  only  a  demonstration,  the  herald  of 
Christian  Science. 

"The  lonely  precincts  of  the  tomb  gave  Jesus  a 
refuge  from  his  foes,  a  place  in  which  to  solve  the 


Bible  Verities  and  "Science"  Vaporings      117 

great  problem  of  being.  ...  He  met  and  mas- 
tered, on  the  basis  of  Christian  Science,  the  power  of 
Mind  over  matter,  all  the  claims  of  medicine,  surgery, 
and  hygiene." 

Compare  with  this  1  Cor.  15:  1-14: 

Moreover,  brethren,  I  declare  unto  you  the  gospel  which  I 
preached  unto  you,  which  also  ye  have  received,  and  wherein 
ye  stand ; 

By  which  also  ye  are  saved,  if  ye  keep  in  memory  what  I 
preached  unto  you,  unless  ye  have  believed  in  vain. 

For  I  delivered  unto  you  first  of  all  that  which  I  also  re- 
ceived, how  that  Christ  died  for  our  sins  according  to  the 
Scriptures ; 

And  that  he  was  buried,  and  that  he  rose  again  the  third 
day  according  to  the  Scriptures.     .     .    . 

Now  if  Christ  be  preached  that  he  rose  from  the  dead,  how 
say  some  among  you  that  there  is  no  resurrection  of  the  dead  ? 

But  if  there  be  no  resurrection  of  the  dead,  then  is  Christ 
not  risen: 

And  if  Christ  be  not  risen,  then  is  our  preaching  vain, 
and  your  faith  is  also  vain. 

Still  further,  speaking  of  the  death  of  Jesus,  the 
prophet  says  in  her  "Science  and  Health" : 

"Our  Master  fully  and  finally  demonstrated  divine 
Science  in  his  victory  over  death  and  the  grave.  Jesus' 
deed  was  for  the  enlightenment  of  men  and  for  the 
salvation  of  the  whole  world  from  sin,  sickness,  and 
death.  Paul  writes :  Tor  if,  when  we  were  enemies, 
we  were  reconciled  to  God  by  the  (seeming)  death  of 
His  Son,  much  more,  being  reconciled,  we  shall  be 
saved  by  his  life.'  " 

The  Christian  Church  believes  that  Jesus'  death 
upon  the  cross  was  a  real  death :  his  despairing  cry  on 
Calvary  was  to  the  Father  Infinite.    To  Mrs.  Eddy  it 


n8  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

was  only  a  "highest  demonstration, "  and  his  appeal 
was  only  to  "divine  Principle,"  and  "to  himself,  Love's 
purest  idea." 

To  her  that  death  on  Calvary  was  only  a  "seeming 
death,"  and  she  wrests  Paul's  words  to  make  them  ac- 
cord with  her  theories  and  fit  into  her  dream  philoso- 
phy of  the  earthly  existence.  Of  course,  if  there  is 
no  sin,  there  is  no  need  of  a  Redeemer  from  sin.  The 
idea  of  a  vicarious  or  of  a  merely  moral  atonement  is 
utterly  superfluous  and  an  impertinence  in  the  scheme 
of  the  universe.  Man  does  not  need  an  example,  even, 
that  makes  for  righteousness ;  he  is  righteous  and  per- 
fect. There  is  no  veil  between  him  and  the  face  of 
God;  he  can  say  with  Jesus,  "I  and  the  Father  are 
one." 

Concerning  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  amid 
much  confusion  one  thing  is  clear  in  Christian  Science 
teaching,  that  the  Holy  Spirit  is  Christian  Science. 
This  is  clearly  stated  on  several  pages  of  "Science  and 
Health."  The  mission  of  Jesus  was  to  teach  or  demon- 
strate Christian  Science.  The  advent  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  was  the  influx  of  the  understanding  that  the 
disciples  could  heal  the  sick  and  raise  the  dead.  Mrs. 
Eddy's  disciples  believe  that  her  discovery  of  "Meta- 
physical Healing"  has  given  again  the  day  of  Pente- 
cost and  the  coming  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  book 
reads : 

"The  advent  of  this  understanding  is  what  is  meant 
by  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost— that  influx  of  Di- 
vine Science  which  so  illuminated  the  Pentecostal  Day 
and  is  now  repeating  its  ancient  history." 


Bible  Verities  and  "Science"  Vaporings      119 

The  chapter  in  "Science  and  Health"  named  "Atone- 
ment and  Eucharist"  closes  in  this  fashion : 

"In  the  words  of  St.  John:  'He  shall  give  you 
another  Comforter,  that  he  may  abide  with  you  for- 
ever.' This  Comforter  I  understand  to  be  Divine  Sci- 
ence." 

These  statements  show  a  wide  divergence  from  the 
faith  of  the  Christian  Church.  There  is  nothing  said 
by  Jesus  of  such  fantastic  interpretations  as  Mrs.  Ed- 
dy's mystical  ideas  more  than  hint  at.  In  John  we 
read  that  Jesus  said: 

But  the  Comforter,  which  is  the  Holy  Ghost,  whom  the 
Father  will  send  in  my  name,  he  shall  teach  you  all  things, 
and  bring  all  things  to  your  remembrance,  whatsoever  I  have 
said  unto  you. — John  14 :  26. 

The  Holy  Spirit  is  a  teacher,  a  personal  teacher  : 

Even  the  Spirit  of  truth;  whom  the  world  cannot  receive, 
because  it  seeth  him  not,  neither  knoweth  him :  but  ye  know 
him;  for  he  dwelleth  with  you,  and  shall  be  in  you.— John 

Howbeit  when  he,  the  Spirit  of  truth,  is  come,  he  will  guide 
you  into  all  truth:  for  he  shall  not  speak  of  himself;  but  what- 
soever he  shall  hear,  that  shall  he  speak:  and  he  will  show 
you  things  to  come.  m  . 

He  shall  glorify  me :  for  he  shall  receive  of  mine,  and  shall 
show  it  unto  you.— John  16 :  13,  14. 

He  is  a  personality,  not  a  "Science"  or  a  book,  but 
the  Spirit  of  Truth.  He  is  to  dwell  with  the  people  of 
God,  to  comfort  them  with  truth.  Jesus  says  further 
(not  quoted  by  Mrs.  Eddy,  who  says  there  is  no  sin) 
through  the  inspired  pen  of  John : 


120  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 


When  he  is  come,  he  will  reprove  the  world  of  sin,  and  of 
righteousness,  and  of  judgment: 

Of  sin,  because  they  believe  not  on  me; 

Of  righteousness,  because  I  go  to  my  Father,  and  ye  see  me 
no  more ; 

Of  judgment,  because  the  prince  of  this  world  is  judged. — 
John  16:8-11. 

When  the  Holy  Spirit  was  poured  out  at  Pentecost 
we  hear  nothing  of  Jesus'  death  not  being  real,  of  the 
Resurrection  being  an  illusion,  of  sin  not  being  a  real 
fact  in  human  experience.  The  outpouring  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  was  the  immediate  inspiration  of  Peter's 
sermon.  This  discourse  exalted  the  death  and  resur- 
rection of  Jesus  Christ,  and  was  a  call  to  repentance  of 
sin,  baptism  unto  its  remission,  and  the  reception  of 
the  Holy  Spirit.  Nowhere  in  these  transactions  does 
the  peculiar  "understanding"  Mrs.  Eddy  avouches  ap- 
pear in  evidence.  Jesus  is  a  living  reality ;  the  cruci- 
fixion, the  death,  the  resurrection  of  the  Redeemer  are 
facts  for  all  time  and  eternity.  Do  we  hear  the  first 
Christian  preacher  cry  aloud,  "There  is  no  sin"  ?  His 
words  are : 

Therefore  let  all  the  house  of  Israel  know  assuredly,  that 
God  hath  made  that  same  Jesus,  whom  ye  have  crucified,  both 
Lord  and  Christ. 

Now  when  they  heard  this,  they  were  pricked  in  their 
heart,  and  said  unto  Peter  and  to  the  rest  of  the  apostles, 
Men  and  brethren,  what  shall  we  do? 

Then  Peter  said  unto  them,  Repent,  and  be  baptized  every 
one  of  you  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  for  the  remission  of 
sins,  and  ye  shall  receive  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost.     .     .     . 

Then  they  that  gladly  received  his  word  were  baptized :  and 
the  same  day  there  were  added  unto  them  about  three  thou- 
sand souls. 

And  they  continued  steadfastly  in  the  apostles'  doctrine  and 
in  breaking  of  bread  and  in  prayers.— Acts  2 :  30-42. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE      TEACHING      OF      "SCIENCE      AND 

HEALTH"  ON  THE  LAST  SUPPER, 

ON      PRAYER,      AND      ON 

MARRIAGE. 

The  mystic  and  conflicting  thoughts  found  in  "Sci- 
ence and  Health"  now  partake  of  the  truths  which  all 
Christians  of  the  Evangelical  communions  believe,  and 
now  dash  the  cup  of  a  living  faith  from  the  lips.  It 
talks  sweetly  of  love,  life,  truth,  and  giving  all  for 
Christ.  In  one  place  we  read :  'This  is  the  new  un- 
derstanding of  spiritual  Love.  It  gives  all  for  Christ, 
or  Truth."  Well  may  the  devout,  humble  disciple  of 
the  real  Jesus,  not  the  phantom  one,  say :  "This  Sci- 
ence has  taken  away  my  Lord,  and  I  know  not  where 
it  has  laid  him." 

Mrs.  Eddy  writes  of  the  Lord's  Supper: 
"Have  you  shared  the  blood  of  the  new  covenant, 
the  persecutions  which  attend  a  new  and  higher  un- 
derstanding of  God?  If  not,  can  you  say  you  have 
commemorated  Jesus  in  His  cup?  .  .  .  Why  as- 
cribe this  inspiration  to  a  dead  rite,  instead  of  show- 
ing, by  casting  out  error  and  making  the  body  'holy 
and  acceptable  unto  God,'  that  Truth  has  come  to  the 
understanding?  If  Christ,  Truth,  has  come  to  us  in 
demonstration,  no  other  commemoration  is  requisite; 
.  .  .  and  if  a  friend  be  with  us  why  need  we  me- 
morials of  that  friend?" 

121 


122  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

Here  again,  it  is  not  Christ,  the  personal  Redeemer, 
but  some  phantom,  some  shadow,  a  virtue,  a  trait,  a 
principle,  that  finds  exaltation  in  the  mind  of  this 
founder  of  "My  Church."  She  would  do  away  with 
the  "Last  Supper,"  and  in  keeping  with  her  many  bor- 
rowings from  many  sources,  she  would  substitute 
what  she  calls  our  Lord's  "last  spiritual  breakfast  with 
his  disciples  in  the  bright  morning  hours  at  the  joyful 
meeting  on  the  shore  of  the  Galilean  Sea." 

"This  spiritual  meeting  with  our  Lord,  in  the  dawn 
of  a  new  light,  is  the  morning  meal  which  Christian 
Scientists  commemorate.  They  bow  before  Christ, 
Truth,  to  receive  more  of  his  reappearing  and  silently 
to  commune  with  the  divine  Principle,  Love." 

Thus  this  improver  on  God's  plan  for  all  the  ages, 
who  does  away  with  sin,  confounds  right  and  wrong 
as  the  mere  result  of  thinking,  and  confuses  the  feet  of 
the  unwary  in  subtleties  of  metaphysics,  supplants  the 
rites  of  the  Church  with  whimsical  fashions  of  her 
own. 

The  Evangelists  give  the  account  of  the  institution 
of  the  Lord's  Supper  and  declare  it  to  be  Jesus'  com- 
mand that  it  be  an  everlasting  memorial.  The  mask 
that  Christian  Science  wears  here  in  seeking  its  abro- 
gation is  the  mask  of  His  second  appearance.  They 
claim  that  Christ  has  come  in  Christian  Science.  That 
is,  Christian  Science  masquerades  now  as  the  Holy 
Spirit,  now  as  He  for  whom  the  Christian  Church  is 
exhorted  by  the  Holy  Book  to  patiently  wait  in  the 
love  of  God. 

The  Church  will  judge  if  this  strange  mingling  of 


Last  Supper,  Prayer  and  Marriage  123 

the  rubbish  and  vagaries  of  all  the  long  centuries  is 
the  messenger  of  God  to  execute  His  will  to  our  time. 
Compare  the  account  of  the  Supper's  institution  in 
the  Gospels  of  Matthew,  Mark,  and  Luke,  and  the 
words  of  Paul,  as  to  its  continuance : 

For  I  have  received  of  the  Lord  that  which  also  I  delivered 
unto  you,  That  the  Lord  Jesus,  the  same  night  in  which  he 
was  betrayed,  took  bread : 

And  when  he  had  given  thanks,  he  brake  it,  and  said,  Take, 
eat ;  this  is  my  body,  which  is  broken  for  you :  thi-s  do  in 
remembrance  of  me. 

After  the  same  manner  also  he  took  the  cup,  when  he  had 
supped,  saying,  This  cup  is  the  new  testament  in  my  blood : 
this  do  ye,  as  oft  as  ye  drink  it,  in  remembrance  of  me. 

For  as  often  as  ye  eat  this  bread,  and  drink  this  cup,  ye  do 
show  the  Lord's  death  till  he  come. — 1  Cor.  11:23-26. 

This  is  not  a  human  institution.  The  divine  Re- 
deemer on  the  eve  of  his  great  sacrifice  for  sin  com- 
manded it,  as  a  perpetual  remembrance  of  himself,  a 
showing  forth  of  his  death  "till  he  come."  Christian 
Science  says,  "It  is  mournful,"  and  would  substitute 
for  it  a  breakfast,  jubilantly  joyful. 

The  volume  "Science  and  Health"  opens  with  a  0n  prayer 
treatise  on  Prayer.  But  here,  too,  the  doctrine  enun- 
ciated is  confusing  and  misleading.  The  Old  and 
New  Testaments  are  full  of  calls  to  praise  God.  This 
call  is  continuous  and  universal.  Think  of  the  last 
Psalm  as  a  type  of  the  way  in  which  the  Infinite 
Father  delights  in  the  praises  of  His  children : 

Praise  ye  the  Lord.  Praise  God  in  his  sanctuary:  praise 
him  in  the  firmament  of  his  power. 

Praise  him  for  his  mighty  acts :  praise  him  according  to  his 
excellent  greatness. 

Praise  him  with  the  sound  of  the  trumpet:  praise  him  with 
the  psaltery  and  harp. 


124  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

Praise  him  with  the  timbrel  and  dance:  praise  him  with 
stringed  instruments  and  organs. 

Praise  him  upon  the  loud  cymbals:  praise  him  upon  the 
high  sounding  cymbals. 

Let  every  thing  that  hath  breath  praise  the  Lord.  Praise 
ye  the  Lord. 

This  new  bible  says : 

"God  is  not  moved  by  the  breath  of  praise  to  do 
more  than  he  has  already  done,  nor  can  the  Infinite 
do  less  than  bestow  all  good,  since  He  is  unchanging 
wisdom  and  love." 

In  the  next  paragraph  we  read : 

"Prayer  cannot  change  the  science  of  being.  .  .  . 
The  mere  habit  of  pleading  with  the  divine  Mind,  as 
one  pleads  with  a  human  being,  perpetuates  the  belief 
in  God  as  humanly  circumscribed — an  error  which 
impedes  spiritual  growth." 

Jesus  taught  the  doctrine  of  prayer  in  the  Gospel  of 
Luke.  He  certainly  sanctions  the  belief  that  men 
should  feel  the  need  of  something  of  real  necessity  and 
come  to  God  and  plead  before  Him  for  the  fulfilment 
of  a  right  desire. 

Mrs.  Eddy  claims  that  what  is  most  desirable  is 
not  audible,  but  silent  prayer,  the  fervent  desire  for 
growth  in  grace,  and  the  struggle  to  be  good.  She 
says: 

"What  we  most  need  is  the  prayer  of  fervent  desire 
for  growth  in  grace,  expressed  in  patience,  meekness, 
love,  and  good  deeds."  "The  habitual  struggle  to  be 
always  good  is  unceasing  prayer."  "Audible  prayer  is 
impressive ;  it  gives  momentary  solemnity  and  eleva- 
tion to  thought.    But  does  it  produce  any  lasting  bene- 


Last  Supper,  Prayer  and  Marnage  125 

fit?"  "God  is  lot  influenced  by  man.  The  'divine 
ear'  is  not  an  au  litory  nerve." 

Jesus  both  in  substance  and  doctrine  taught  the  op- 
posite of  all  this.  And  no  distinction  is  made  in  the 
Scripture  between  the  merits  of  silent  and  audible 
prayer.     Compare  Luke  11:  1-13. 

Again,  Mrs.  Eddy  writes :  "The  danger  from 
prayer  is  that  it  may  lead  us  into  temptation.  By  it 
we  may  become  involuntary  hypocrites.  .  .  . 
Hypocrisy  is  fatal  to  religion." 

Jesus  said :  "Watch  and  pray  lest  ye  enter  into 
temptation." 

This  new  prophet  rings  the  changes  on  a  "corporeal 
God"  as  the  belief  of  Evangelical  Christendom.  The 
writer  has  asked  many  Christians,  clergymen  and  lay- 
men, not  affected  with  the  Christian  Science  vagaries, 
if  they  believed  in  a  corporeal  God.  None  of  them 
held  any  such  belief. 

Again  the  pen  transcribes  : 

"Prayer  to  a  corporeal  God  affects  the  sick  like  a 
drug,  which  has  no  efficacy  of  its  own  but  borrows  its 
power  from  human  faith  and  belief.  .  .  .  The 
common  custom  of  praying  for  the  recovery  of  the 
sick  finds  help  in  blind  belief,  whereas  help  should 
come  from  the  enlightened  understanding.  .  .  . 
If  the  sick  recover  because  they  pray  or  are  prayed 
for  audibly,  only  petitioners  (per  se  or  by  proxy) 
should  get  well." 

God's  Word  says :  "The  prayer  of  faith  shall  save 
the  sick  and  the  Lord  will  raise  him  up  again." 

In   Christian   Science,    the   crux   of  the  matter  is 


126  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

found  in  "the  enlightened  understanding."    But  it  may- 
be asked,  man's  or  God's? 

The  Redeemer  teaches  that  all  prayer  is  subservient 
to  the  will  of  God.  The  one  thing  needful  is  the  har- 
mony of  the  divine  and  human  will.    Jesus  cries : 


"Father,  if  thou  be  willing,  remove  this  cup  from  me :  never- 
theless, not  my  will,  but  thine,  be  done." 


The  Christian  Church  in  all  ages  has  looked  upon 
the  prayer  given  his  disciples  by  our  Lord  as  the  per- 
fection of  all  prayer.  Mrs.  Eddy,  as  prophet  and  priest 
of  her  new  cult,  gives  her  church  what  she  calls  the 
"spiritual  sense  of  the  Lord's  Prayer."  Her  spiritual 
interpretation  of  it  has  grown  with  the  441  editions  of 
her  book.  In  earlier  editions  this  is  the  prayer  and  its 
spiritual  (Christian  Science)  interpretation: 


Our  Father  which  art  in  heaven. 

Our  eternal  supreme  Being,  all-harmonious. 

Hallowed  be  thy  name. 

Forever  glorious. 

Thy  kingdom  come. 

Ever  present  and  omnipotent. 

Thy  will  be  done  in  earth,  as  it  is  in  heaven. 

Thy  supremacy  appears  as  matter  disappears. 

Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread ; 

Give  us  each  day  the  living  bread; 

And  forgive  us  our  debts,  as  we  forgive  our  debtors. 

And  Truth  will  destroy  the  claims  of  error. 

And  lead  us  not  into  temptation,  but  deliver  us  from  evil ; 

Led  by  Spirit,  mortals  are  freed  from  sickness,  sin  and 
death; 

For  thine  is  the  kingdom,  and  the  power  and  the  glory  for- 
ever.   Amen. 

For  Thou  art  all  substance,  Life,  Truth  and  Love  forever; 
so  be  it. 


Last  Supper,  Prayer  and  Marriage  127 

In  the  year  1900  an  author  and  investigator  of  the 
phenomena  of  Christian  Science  visited  the  Concord 
Church.  He  was  astonished  during  the  hour  of  wor- 
ship to  hear  the  Lord's  Prayer,  which  has  been  re- 
garded throughout  Christendom  as  the  one  perfect 
prayer,  even  the  infidel  joining  in  the  tribute  to  its  ex- 
cellence from  the  viewpoint  of  refined  intellectuality, 
improved  upon  and  amended  by  the  "Mother."  He 
had  heard  it  whispered  that  the  members  of  the  cult 
regarded  Mrs.  Eddy  as  something  above  a  mortal,  and 
as  he  listened  he  said  to  himself,  "To  what  mother  are 
they  praying?" 

This  is  the  way  the  amended  prayer  stands  in  the 
edition  of  1908: 

Our  Father-Mother  God,  All-harmonious,  Adorable  One. 

Thy  kingdom  is  come;  Thou  art  ever-present. 

Enable  us  to  know — as  in  heaven,  so  on  earth — God  is 
omnipotent,  supreme. 

Give  us  grace  for  to-day;  feed  the  famished  affections; 

And  Love  is  reflected  in  love; 

And  God  leadeth  us  not  into  temptation,  but  delivereth  us 
from  sin,  disease,  and  death. 

For  God  is  infinite,  all  Power,  all  Life,  Truth,  Love,  over 
all,  and  all. 

The  "Amen"  is  cut  off  from  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and 
the  so  be  it  from  Mrs.  Eddy's  amendment  in  this  later 
edition. 

One  reader  from  his  desk  recites,  "Our  Father 
which  art  in  heaven,"  then  the  other  reader  replies : 
"Our  Father-Mother  God,  All-harmonious,"  and  so  on 
to  the  close.  Under  Mrs.  Eddy's  pen  the  beauty  and 
meaning  of  the  prayer  are  gone. 


128  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

In  this  chapter  on  prayer  with  its  substitution  of 
divine  "Principle"  for  the  personal  God  and  its  state- 
ment that  Truth  wipes  out  and  gets  rid  of  sin,  the  way 
is  prepared  for  the  domination  of  Christian  Science 
in  so-called  Metaphysical  Healing  and  the  assertion 
that  there  is  no  sin,  sickness  or  death.  So  amid  much 
confusion  of  thought  it  dawns  on  the  reader  of  these 
pages  that  prayer  to  a  mere  principle  or  law,  to  a  mere 
attribute  or  virtue,  is  of  little  avail,  for :  "Prayer  can- 
not change  unalterable  Truth,  nor  can  prayer  give  us 
an  understanding  of  Truth." 

Through  such  teaching  carried  out  to  logical  con- 
clusion prayer  is  made  ridiculous  and  a  beating  of  the 
air. 

Jesus  says: 

"Pray  to  thy  Father  which  is  in  secret;  and  thy 
Father  which  seeth  in  secret  shall  reward  thee  openly." 

What  is  the  meaning  of  this,  one  of  the  closing 
passages  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  chapter  on  prayer : 

"Mere  legal  pardon  (and  there  is  no  other,  for  di- 
vine Principle  never  pardons  our  sins  or  mistakes  till 
they  are  corrected)  leaves  the  offender  free  to  repeat 
the  offence,  if  indeed  he  has  not  already  suffered  suffi- 
ciently from  vice  to  make  him  turn  from  it  with  loath- 
ing. Truth  bestows  no  pardon  on  error,  but  wipes  it 
out  in  the  most  effectual  manner.  Jesus  suffered  for 
our  sins,  not  to  annul  the  divine  sentence  for  an  indi- 
vidual's sin,  but  because  sin  brings  inevitable  suffer- 
ing." 

The  Bible  says :  "Christ  died  for  our  sins  accord- 
ing to  the  Scriptures."    "Christ  also  hath  once  suffered 


Last  Supper,  Prayer  and  Marriage  129 

for  our  sins,  the  Just  for  the  unjust,  that  he  might 
bring  us  to  God."  "Who  gave  himself  for  our 
sins,  that  he  might  deliver  us  from  this  present  evil 
world." 

When  Christian  Scientists  have  found  one  of  Mrs.  on  Marriage 
Eddy's  doctrines  too  monstrous  or  revolting  for  pres- 
ent-day decency,  it  has  been  gradually  changed  or 
so  modified  as  to  appear  vague  and  inconsequential. 
Such  is  the  condition  of  her  teachings  on  marriage 
uttered  boldly  and  wildly  ten  years  ago.  The  refining 
editor's  hand  has  rubbed  away  the  thorns  and  pricks  in 
"Science  and  Health,"  while  still  leaving  severe  plain- 
ness of  speech  on  the  subject  in  "Mother's"  other  writ- 
ings. 

Mrs.  Eddy,  like  other  writers  of  her  ilk,  is  suspicious 
of  all  merely  human  ties.  It  is  not  strange,  when  her 
exploitations  in  the  field  of  friendship  are  considered, 
that  she  should  think  it  a  hindrance  in  the  sun-road  of 
celestial  advancement.  The  single  in  her  estimation 
are  better  off  than  the  married,  and  marriage  is  better 
off  without  than  when  blessed  with  children.  Like 
many  mystics  she  sounds  the  praises  of  celibacy. 

The  following  concession  is  made  to  the  weakness 
and  wickedness  of  the  age,  presumably.  In  her  "Mis- 
cellaneous Writings"  we  read : 

"Until  time  matures,  human  growth,  marriage,  and 
progeny  will  continue  unprohibited  in  Christian  Sci- 
ence." 

If  this  means  anything  it  must  be  that  in  the  esti- 
mation of  Christian  Science  time  will  mature,  and  then 
the  prohibition  of  marriage  and  progeny  will  ensue. 


130  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

"Until  it  is  learned  that  God  is  the  Father  of  all, 
marriage  will  continue." 

Is  this  utterance,  taken  from  "Science  and  Health," 
an  indication  that  when  men  learn  that  God  is  the 
Father  of  all,  time  will  mature  and  marriage  cease? 
"Mother"  declares  that  she  looks  to  future  generations 
"for  ability  to  comply  with  absolute  Science,  when 
marriage  shall  be  found  to  be  man's  oneness  with  God 
— the  verity  of  eternal  love." 

To  the  initiated  these  cabalistic  words  may  have  a 
meaning,  but  to  the  man  of  sober  judgment  they  are 
monstrous  with  covert  license.  Call  the  flesh  an  "il- 
lusion" if  you  please,  call  the  life  of  earth  a  dream- 
life,  all  its  most  sacred  relations  only  phantoms  and 
shadows,  educate  the  young  into  the  belief  that  sin  is 
nothing,  and  when  the  moving  pictures  of  the  sensuous 
life  entrance  with  the  lusts  of  the  carnal  nature,  it  will 
be  nothing  strange  if  the  dream  of  the  Nicolaitans  of 
the  first  century  is  dreamed  over  again  in  this  twenti- 
eth century.  These  doctrines  touching  on  marriage 
promulgated  by  the  "Mother"  are  so  subtle  and  in- 
sidious that  they  constitute  a  formidable  menace  to  so- 
cial well-being.  They  strike  not  at  a  human,  but  at  a 
divine  institution.  In  the  beginning  God  ordained 
marriage  between  one  man  and  one  woman.  This 
doctrine  was  confirmed  by  Jesus  Christ  and  re-enacted. 
The  whole  Bible  teaches  it  directly  and  indirectly. 
God  made  man,  male  and  female.  God  bade  them 
propagate  and  multiply : 

And  Adam  said,  This  is  now  bone  of  my  bones,  and  flesh 
of  my  flesh.     Therefore  shall  a  man  leave  his  father  and  his 


Last  Supper,  Prayer  and  Marriage  131 

mother,  and  shall  cleave  unto  his  wife:  and  they  shall  be  one 
flesh.— Gen.  2 :  23,  24. 

Our  Lord  attributes  to  these  words  divine  authority 
when  he  says : 

And  they  said,  Moses  suffered  to  write  a  bill  of  divorce- 
ment  and  to  put  her  away.  „       t     .      , 

And  Jesus  answered  and  said  unto  them,  For  the  hardness 
of  your  heart  he  wrote  you  this  precept. 

But  from  the  beginning  of  the   creation  God  made  them 

mForathis  cTJse'shall  a  man  leave  his  father  and  mother,  and 

C  And ^hty  twain  shall  be  one  flesh:   so  then  they  are  no 
more  twain,  but  one  flesh. 

What  therefore  God  hath  joined  together,  let  no  man  put 
asunder.— Mark  10 :  4-9. 

The  laws  concerning  marriage  apply  to  a  real  world, 
and  to  real  men  and  women  in  a  real  world.  The 
Bible  does  not  speak  of  marriages  in  a  future  state. 
Jesus  says  that  in  heaven  they  neither  marry  nor  are 
given  in  marriage,  but  are  as  the  angels  of  God. 

In  the  Christian  Church  monogamy  does  not  rest 
exclusively  upon  the  original  institution  of  the  rite, 
neither  on  the  general  underlying  sentiment  of  the 
Old  Testament,  but  on  the  clear  revelation  of  the  will 
of  Jesus  Christ.  The  doctrine  is  open  and  apparent. 
Marriage  is  a  contract  between  one  man  and  one 
woman,  and  may  not  be  broken  lawfully  except  by  the 
death  of  one  of  the  parties. 

Jesus  teaches  this  in  Matt.  19:  3-9;  Mark  10:  4-9, 
as  quoted  above;  Luke  16:  18;  Matthew  5:  32. 

Mrs.  Eddy  can  be  understood  only  when  she  says  in 
plain  language :    "To  abolish  marriage  at  this  period 


132  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

and  maintain  morality  and  generation  would  put  in- 
genuity to  ludicrous  shifts."  In  this  peculiar  situation 
it  remains  for  the  prophet  or  any  one  of  her  disciples 
to  tell  the  world  how  morality  and  generation  may  be 
preserved  and  marriage  abolished.  The  prophet  adds : 
"Yet  this  is  possible  in  Science." 

If  you  ask  them  how  this  is  possible,  the  disciples 
of  Mrs.  Eddy  refuse  to  utter  a  word  on  the  subject, 
but  fly  to  platitudes  and  tell  you  how  they  love  and 
reverence  Jesus  and  all  good.  Where  in  the  science 
that  is  not  wearing  the  mask  of  falsehood,  where  in 
the  doctrines  of  Jesus,  is  anything  so  absurd,  dia- 
bolical, and  inimical  to  all  the  teachings  of  Holy  Writ 
and  the  commandments  of  God  even  suggested? 

In  Romans  7 :  2,  3,  it  is  written : 

For  the  woman  which  hath  a  husband  is  bound  by  the  law 
to  her  husband  so  long  as  he  liveth;  but  if  the  husband  be 
dead,  she  is  loosed  from  the  law  of  her  husband. 

So  then  if,  while  her  husband  liveth,  she  be  married  to  an- 
other man,  she  shall  be  called  an  adulteress :  but  if  her  hus- 
band be  dead,  she  is  free  from  that  law ;  so  that  she  is  no 
adulteress,  though  she  be  married  to  another  man. 

So  the  same  doctrine  is  plainly  stated  1  Corinthians 
7:  2: 

Let  every  man  have  his  own  wife,  and  let  every  woman 
have  her  own  husband. 

The  Scriptures  do  not  support  her  contention,  but 
she  seeks  to  shelter  her  vague  notions  under  the  aegis 
of  Prof.  Agassiz's  works,  quoting  from  him  in  earlier 
editions.  These  are  the  words  that  appear  in  "Science 
and  Health" : 


Last  Supper,  Prayer  and  Marriage  133 

"The  propagation  of  the  species  without  the  male 
element,  by  butterfly,  bee,  and  moth,  is  a  discovery  cor- 
roborative of  the  Science  of  Mind,  because  it  shows 
that  the  origin  and  continuance  of  these  insects  rests 
on  Principle  apart  from  material  conditions." 

The  hand  of  the  editor  has  softened  this  bold  an- 
nouncement in  the  1908  edition  into  this : 

"I  never  knew  more  than  one  individual  who  be- 
lieved in  agamogenesis ;  she  was  unmarried,  a  lovely 
character,  was  suffering  from  incipient  insanity,  and  a 
Christian  Scientist  cured  her.  .  .  .  The  perpetua- 
tion of  the  floral  species  by  bud  and  cell  division  is  evi- 
dent, but  I  discredit  the  belief  that  agamogenesis  ap- 
plies to  the  human  system." 

The  readers  of  all  the  earlier  editions,  339  in  num- 
ber, presumably  have  imbibed  the  tenet  that  marriage 
is  only  temporary,  and  that  God's  command  to  propa- 
gate and  multiply  was  not  to  be  carried  out  by  sexual 
union.  It  is  well  authenticated,  however,  that  one  of 
Mrs.  Eddy's  disciples  some  years  back  took  Mrs.  Ed- 
dy's words  at  face  value  and  calmly  announced  to  a 
wonder-struck  and  incredulous  world  the  immaculate 
conception  and  birth  of  a  son. 

Into  what  depths  of  license  and  atrocious  sensuality 
would  these  doctrines  sink  society,  vague  and  loose  as 
they  are,  but  terribly  forceful  in  their  suggestion  to 
the  evil  in  humanity !  Jesus  says  the  world  is  real,  the 
world  is  evil,  and  he  bids  us  not  to  love  it  or  the  things 
of  it. 

Is  there  anything  in  the  New  Testament  or  in  the 
belief  of  the  churches  of  Christendom  that  would  tol- 


134  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

erate  the  brash  wickedness  and  abomination  of  the 
declaration  made  in  "Miscellaneous  Writings"  on 
page  289 : 

"Human  nature  has  bestowed  upon  a  wife  the  right 
to  become  a  mother;  but  if  the  wife  esteems  not  this 
privilege,  by  mutual  consent,  exalted  and  increased 
affections,  she  may  win  a  higher." 

What  is  the  meaning  of  "a  higher"?  Mrs.  Eddy 
and  her  editors  are  silent  here.  Not  a  press  agent  of 
her  numerous  publication  bureaus  has  a  word  to  say 
along  this  line.  If  it  means  anything,  this  higher  privi- 
lege is  the  ruin  of  the  family,  the  disintegration  of  so- 
ciety. It  means  woe  to  the  nation  and  disaster  to  hu- 
manity. Let  this  become  a  fetish,  a  goddess  before 
whom  womanhood  shall  bow  down  and  worship,  and 
God's  purpose  and  commands  will  be  forgotten  in  a 
maelstrom  of  vice,  and  the  creature  will  be  worshiped 
and  served  more  than  the  Creator.  It  is  hard  for  the 
best  to  keep  right  and  live  above  the  enticements  of 
the  world,  the  flesh  and  the  devil.  Once  let  such  doc- 
trines as  these  find  lodgment  in  mind  and  heart,  and 
anarchy,  night  and  chaos  would  sweep  the  black  cloud 
of  oblivion  over  all  the  beacon  lights  of  the  world. 

The  impregnable  rock  of  Holy  Scripture  lifts  its 
towering  head  against  such  heathenish  abominations. 
The  heart  of  the  Christian  Church  revolts  against  such 
subtle  machinations,  and  tears  off  the  mask  of  "Sci- 
ence" and  "Christian"  from  the  face  of  this  dream  of 
perdition. 

Christian  Science  masquerades  now  as  the  Holy 
Spirit,  whose  work   in   the   Church   and   the   human 


Last  Supper,  Prayer  and  Marriage  135 

heart  is  to  take  of  the  things  of  Jesus  and  show  them 
unto  us,  to  convince  of  sin,  of  righteousness,  and  of 
judgment,  again  as  fulfilling  the  mission  of  Jesus 
Christ.  In  other  words,  it  claims  that  the  prophecy 
concerning  the  second  coming  of  the  Redeemer  is  real- 
ized in  it;  that  this  system  with  its  many  contradic- 
tions is  nothing  less  than  the  One  who  was  the  ex- 
press image  of  the  Father's  glory  and  fullness  of  his 
presence — Emmanuel,  God  with  us  evermore. 

In  Mrs.  Eddy's  different  writings,  as  has  already  «Science» 
been  observed  on  other  topics,  there  are  startling  in-  Heredity 
congruities  and  inconsistencies.  A  case  in  point  is  her 
teaching  on  the  law  of  heredity.  Her  followers  are 
strenuous  in  declaring  that  "Mother"  says  there  is 
no  such  thing  as  heredity.  In  one  place  she  rejoices 
that  neither  good  nor  bad  traits  can  be  transmitted 
to  offspring.  In  her  text-book,  which  she  announces 
as  co-pastor  with  the  Bible  in  churches  of  her  de- 
nomination, she  bemoans  the  sad  fate  of  children  who 
inherit  tendencies— shall  we  say  it?— diseases  that 
make  them  objects  of  loathing  or  compassion : 

"The  offspring  of  heavenly  minded  parents  must  in- 
herit more  intellect,  better  balanced  minds,  and 
sounder  constitutions.  If  some  fortuitous  circum- 
stance places  spiritual  children  in  the  arms  of  gross 
parents,  these  beautiful  children  early  droop  and  die, 
like  tropical  flowers  born  amid  Alpine  snows.  If  per- 
chance they  live  to  become  parents,  in  their  turn  they 
may  reproduce  in  their  own  helpless  little  ones  the 
grosser  traits  of  their  ancestors.  What  hope  of  hap- 
piness, what  noble  ambition  can  inspire  the  child  who 


136  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

inherits  propensities  that  must  be  either  overcome  or 
reduce  him  to  a  loathsome  wreck  ?" 

Surely  no  student  of  the  laws  of  heredity  that  pre- 
vail in  nature  and  govern  the  transmission  of  traits, 
tendencies,  and  characteristics  could  wish  from  a  lay- 
man— even  if  inspired — a  clearer  expression  of  belief 
in  these  fundamental  principles.  He  who  reads  this 
from  the  text-book  and  goes  no  farther  may  with 
some  degree  of  assurance  announce  Christian  Science 
as  favoring  the  laws  of  heredity.  But  as  elsewhere  in 
Christian  Science,  one  cannot  be  too  sure  before  leap- 
ing to  a  conclusion  on  any  matter  of  fundamental  law 
or  basic  principle,  as  to  just  the  light  in  which  "Sci- 
ence" holds  it.  No  wonder  the  book  that  is  intended 
as  a  shepherd  guide  needed  repeated  editing.  Either 
the  author  loses  her  memory  or  she  must  be  impressed 
with  the  belief  that  her  readers  have  lost  theirs. 

In  "Miscellaneous  Writings,"  page  72,  she  asks  the 
question:  "Does  Christian  Science  set  aside  the  law 
of  transmission,  pre-natal  desires,  and  good  and  bad 
influences  on  the  unborn  child?" 

The  answer  she  makes  is  this : 

"Science  never  averts  law,  but  supports  it.  All  ac- 
tual causation  must  interpret  Omnipotence,  the  all- 
knowing  Mind.  Law  brings  out  Truth,  not  error. 
Whatever  is  humanly  conceived  is  a  departure  from 
Divine  law ;  hence  its  mythical  origin  and  certain  end. 
According  to  Scriptures,  Paul  declares  astutely,  Tor 
of  Him,  and  through  Him,  and  to  Him  are  all  things.' 
Man  is  incapable  of  originating;  nothing  can  be 
formed  apart  from  God,  Good,  the  all-knowing  Mind." 


Last  Supper,  Prayer  and  Marriage  137 

So  far  the  deliverance  here  is  in  accord  with  the 
statement  quoted  from  "Science  and  Health"  above. 
It  may  be  well  to  notice  in  passing  that  the  teaching 
is  emphatically  of  an  impersonal  God,  not  the  God  of 
whom  this  same  Paul  affirms,  "I  believe  in  God."  The 
reader  will  now  observe  that  the  continued  quotation 
from  the  same  "Miscellaneous  Writings"  turns  the 
former  positive  statement  into  a  negation,  and  deflects 
what  seems  to  be  a  support  of  the  law  of  heredity  into 
a  denial  of  the  existence  of  such  a  law  in  the  universe. 
Thus  the  author  goes  on  to  say : 

"What  seems  to  be  of  human  origin  is  the  counter- 
feit of  the  Divine — even  human  concepts,  mortal 
shadows  flitting  across  the  dial  of  time. 

"Whatever  is  real  is  right  and  eternal.  Hence  the 
immutable  and  just  law  of  Science  that  God  is  good 
only,  and  can  transmit  to  man  and  the  universe  noth- 
ing evil  or  unlike  Himself.  For  the  innocent  babe  to 
be  born  a  lifelong  sufferer  because  of  his  parents'  sins 
or  mistakes  were  sore  injustice. 

"According  to  beliefs  of  the  flesh  both  good  and  bad 
traits  of  the  parents  are  transmitted  to  their  helpless 
offspring,  and  God  is  supposed  to  impart  to  man  this 
fatal  power.  It  is  a  cause  of  rejoicing  that  this  belief 
is  as  false  as  it  is  remorseless/' 

Why  should  a  prophet  and  a  seer  be  consistent? 
The  writings  abound  in  contradictions  evidently  made 
to  guard  the  healer  of  this  cult  against  punishment  in 
malpractice.  It  is  but  a  little  thing  to  brush  away, 
with  one  sharp  stroke  of  the  Seer's  pen,  law, 
human  and  divine,  which,  affirmed  in  one  place,  be- 


138  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

comes  in  another  a  troublesome  factor  in  the  pathway 
of  a  system  that  claims  the  name  of  Christian  and  sci- 
entific, but  which,  when  unmasked,  reveals  the  features 
of  an  agnostic  and  unbeliever  in  both. 


CHAPTER  IX. 
THE  "KEY." 

In  Genesis  it  is  written:     "In  the  beginning  God  j**^ 
created   the   heavens   and   the   earth"   God-Elohim. 
This  word  is  found  in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  fifty- 
seven  times  in  the  singular,  twice  in  the  book  of  Deu- 
teronomy and  forty-one  times  in  Job,  and  about  three 
thousand  times  in  the  plural,  of  which  seventeen  in- 
stances are.  in  Job.     The  most  probable  meaning  of 
the  root  of  the  Arabic  word  is  to  be  lasting,  binding. 
Hence  the  noun  means  The  Everlasting,  and,  in  the 
plural,  the  Eternal  Powers.     It  is  correctly  rendered 
God   the  name  of  the  Eternal  and  Supreme  Being  in 
our  English  tongue.    This  Being  is  never  to  be  con- 
founded with  principle  or  attribute,  but  is  an  eternally 
living  personality. 

The  Exegesis  of  Mrs.  Eddy  says:  "The  creative 
Principle— Life,  Truth,  and  Love-is  God."  Again 
'The  universe  reflects  God."  "In  the  universe  of 
Truth  matter  is  unknown.  .  .  .  Divine  Science, 
the  Word  of  God,  saith  to  the  darkness  upon  the  face 
of  error,  'God  is  All-in-All.'  " 

Here  are  two  declarations:  God  does  not  know 
matter;  God  is  everything.  This  teaching,  if  words 
have  any  meaning,  is  another  expression  of  plain,  un- 
adulterated  Pantheism,    met   with   so   often   in    this 

139 


rhe  "Untrue" 


140  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

woman's  writings.  Christianity  believes  that  matter  is 
real.  God,  Jehovah,  formed  man  of  the  dust  of  the 
ground  and  breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of 
life,  and  man  became  a  living  soul.  The  dust  of  the 
ground  is  something  real,  and  man  did  not  become 
a  living  soul  until  God  had  breathed  into  the  body, 
already  made,  created,  "a  living  soul." 

We  read  in  the  poets  of  the  "light  that  never  was  on 
land  or  sea."  Mrs.  Eddy  in  the  heated  fancies  of  her 
brain  has  forged  a  "key,"  which  she  names  the  "Key 
to  the  Scriptures,"  but  it  opens  no  lock  and  solves  no 
mystery. 

In  the  "Key  to  the  Scriptures"  the  prophet  begins 
by  saying:  "In  the  following  exegesis  each  text  is 
followed  by  its  spiritual  interpretation  according  to 
the  teachings  of  Christian  Science." 

Again  we  read :  "Spiritually  followed,  the  book  of 
Genesis  is  the  history  of  the  untrue  image  of  God, 
named  sinful  mortal." 

Here  at  the  beginning  of  her  exposition  she  labels 
as  false  the  Word  of  God  in  its  statement  and  teach- 
ing.   The  Bible  account  of  the  creation  of  man  says : 

And  God  said,  Let  us  make  man  in  our  image,  after  our 
likeness :  and  let  them  have  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea, 
and  over  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  over  the  cattle,  and  over  all 
the  earth,  and  over  every  creeping  thing  that  creepeth  upon 
the  earth. 

So  God  created  man  in  his  own  image,  in  the  image  of  God 
created  he  him;  male  and  female  created  he  them. 

Nowhere  does  the  Bible  indicate  that  the  image  of 
Himself  in  which  God  made  man  was  an  "untrue 
image."    There  is  no  such   distinction  set  up  in  the 


The  "Key"  141 

Word  as  this  "Key"  attempts  to  make  out.  It  was  this 
man,  made  in  the  Creator's  image,  and  not  a  shadow  or 
a  picture  of  him,  to  whom  was  given  dominion  "over 
all  the  earth." 

How  are  the  sublime  facts  of  creation  explained  and 
gotten  rid  of  by  a  distinct  Christian  Science  method : 
"God  creates  neither  erring  thought,  mortal  life,  muta- 
ble truth,  nor  variable  love."  That  is,  God  did  not 
create  mortal  man,  man  has  no  body,  he  is  all  soul 
and  spirit,  according  to  this  exegesis.  Paul  says : 
"He  that  raised  up  Christ  from  the  dead  shall  also 
quicken  your  mortal  bodies  by  his  Spirit  that  dwelleth 
in  you."  Not  only  does  the  apostle  teach  here  that 
man  has  a  body,  but  also  that  the  Spirit  of  God  dwells 
in  that  body.  He  also  sets  forth  that  the  body  is  the 
temple  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  This  "Key,"  which  claims 
to  be  Christian,  and  to  have  the  power  of  opening  the 
truth  of  Holy  Scriptures,  offers  flat  contradictions'  to 
the  express  declarations  of  Scripture  and  exposes  its 
author  to  the  charge  of  gross  ignorance  of  exegetical 
principles. 

In  the  animadversion  on  the  fifth  verse  of  Gene-  on  Light 
sis  the  "Key"  continues : 

"All  questions  as  to  the  divine  creation  being  both 
spiritual  and  material  are  answered  in  this  passage,  for 
though  solar  beams  are  not  yet  included  in  the  record 
of  creation,  still  there  is  light.  This  light  is  not  from 
the  sun  nor  from  volcanic  flames,  but  it  is  the  revela- 
tion of  Truth  and  of  spiritual  ideas.  .  .  .  Was 
not  this  a  revelation  instead  of  a  creation?" 

The  "Key"  seems  to  know  that  this  light  was  not 


142  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

solar  nor  volcanic.  It  has  never  heard  of  heat  gen- 
erating light,  or  of  the  many  ways  in  which  at  God's 
command  the  light  might  pierce  the  vapory  mists 
which  shrouded  the  world.  The  exegesis  is  simply  a 
consistent  attempt  to  write  out  of  Scripture  what  God 
has  written  into  it,  and  to  put  into  the  seat  of  Science 
a  crude  and  whimsical  fantasy  bred  of  morbid  and 
neurotic  imaginings. 

The  facts  and  events  of  creation  are,  according  to 
the  "Key,"  "the  successive  appearing  of  God's  ideas." 

Well  may  the  Christian  Church  look  with  pain  and 
horror  on  such  a  travesty  of  its  faith  as  this  jumble 
calling  itself  a  "revelation" ! 

The  obscuration  of  the  facts  of  creation  and  com- 
mon sense  is  witnessed  by  this  bit  of  explanation : 

"Did  Infinite  Mind  create  matter  and  call  it  light? 
Spirit  is  light,  and  the  contradiction  of  Spirit  is  mat- 
ter. Material  sense  is  nothing  but  the  supposition  of 
the  absence  of  Spirit.  .  .  .  Immortal  Mind  makes 
its  own  record,  but  mortal  mind,  sleep,  dreams,  sin, 
disease,  and  death  have  no  record  in  the  first  chapter 
of  Genesis." 

All  this  is  said  in  the  face  of  the  fact  that  in  this 
chapter  is  given  the  account  of  how  God  made  man 
and  of  His  command  to  him  to  increase  and  multiply 
and  subdue  the  earth. 


And  God  blessed  them,  and  God  said  unto  them,  Be  fruitful, 
and  multiply,  and  replenish  the  earth,  and  subdue  it:  and 
have  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and  over  the  fowl  of 
the  air,  and  over  every  living  thing  that  moveth  upon  the 
earth. 


The  "Key"  143 

From  this  chapter,  in  verse  two,  we  gather  that  God 
is  a  Spirit,  and  further  that  He  thinks,  speaks,  wills, 
acts;  and  here  are  the  great  points  of  conformity  of 
man  to  God,  namely,  in  that  man,  too,  has  reason, 
speech,  will,  and  power  to  act.  Man  is  material,  man 
is  also  spiritual.  In  man  is  a  spiritual  being  which 
exercises  reason  and  will,  and  from  reason  and  will 
comes  the  power  to  act.  This  is  that  form  of  God 
in  which  man  is  created  and  through  which  God  com- 
municates with  him.  In  the  "Key,"  as  all  through 
the  pages  of  "Science  and  Health,"  attributes  are  con-  * 
founded  with  personality.  Love,  truth,  goodness — 
things  that  belong  to  the  character  of  God — are  con- 
fused with  his  divine  person  and  are  themselves 
worshiped  as  God.  So  in  relation  to  matter,  the  "Key" 
is  not  able  to  distinguish  between  matter  and  an  at- 
tribute of  matter.  "Did  infinite  Mind  create  matter 
and  call  it  light?"  But  He  created  matter,  and  from 
it  light  emanated,  radiated,  was  produced.  Some  one 
has  called  Christian  Science  "a  jargon  of  unreason 
and  a  maundering  science."  Surely  its  exegesis 
brought  to  the  bar  of  reason  and  scholarship  is  some- 
thing like  that. 

The  "Key"  turns  its  attention  to  the  second  chapter  on  Genesis  2 
of  Genesis.  Dilating  on  verses  four  and  five,  "These 
are  the  generations  of  the  heavens  and  of  the  earth 
when  they  were  created,  in  the  day  that  the  Lord  God 
made  the  earth  and  the  heavens,"  it  is  said  that  "here 
the  inspired  record  closes  its  narrative  of  being  that 
is  without  beginning  or  end.  The  continued  account 
is  mortal  and  material." 


144  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

In  explaining  the  sixth  verse,  "But  there  went  up  a 
mist  from  the  earth,  and  watered  the  whole  face  of 
the  ground,"  this  inspired  revelation  declares: 

"The  Science  and  truth  of  the  divine  creation  have 
been  presented  in  the  verses  already  considered,  and 
now  the  opposite  error,  a  material  view  of  creation,  is 
to  be  set  forth,  .  .  .  but  it  is  a  false  history  in 
contradistinction  to  the  true.  The  Science  of  the  first 
record  proves  the  falsity  of  the  second.  .  .  .  The 
first  record  endows  man  out  of  God's  perfection  and 
power.  The  second  record  chronicles  man  as  mutable 
and  mortal.  .  .  .  This  second  record  gives  the 
history  of  errors.  ...  It  records  Pantheism. 
.  .  .  In  this  erroneous  theory  matter  takes  the 
place  of  Spirit.  .  .  .  The  latter  part  of  the  second 
chapter  of  Genesis  ...  is  based  on  some  hy- 
pothesis of  error." 

Here  we  have  a  distinct  repudiation  of  the  revela- 
tion of  the  divine  Word  when  it  does  not  fit  into  a 
previously  formed  theory  or  hypothesis.  What  an  ex- 
hibition of  an  aping  of  Higher  Criticism  with  scholar- 
ship and  equipment  left  out! 

Presently  the  "Key"  in  its  eagerness  that  the  Holy 
Scriptures  should  not,  by  any  possible  twisting  of  the 
truth,  conform  to  its  baseless  dreams  and  theories, 
will  turn  the  truth  of  God  into  a  lie. 

In  Genesis  2:  7  we  read:  "And  the  Lord  God 
formed  man  of  the  dust  of  the  ground,  and  breathed 
into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life ;  and  man  became  a 
living  soul." 

The  "Key"  says: 


The  "Key"  i45 

"Is  this  addition  to  His  creation  real  or  unreal  ?  Is 
it  a  truth,  or  is  it  a  lie  concerning  man  and  God  ?  It 
must  be  a  lie,  for  God  presently  curses  the  ground. 
.  .  .  Man  reflects  God;  mankind  represents  the 
Adamic  race,  and  is  a  human,  not  a  divine,  creation.', 

The  account  of  the  garden  of  Eden,  the  fall  of  man, 
and  sin  entering  into  the  world  are  brushed  away  in 
one  short  sentence :  "This  second  biblical  account  is  a 
picture  of  Error  throughout.  .  .  .  The  lie  repre- 
sents God  as  repeating  creation." 

While  stoutly  denying  that  matter  can  be  real,  or 
that  such  a  thing  as  sin  entered  into  the  world  of  man, 
the  "Key"  when  explaining  Genesis  4:  1,  and  dilat- 
ing on  the  birth  of  Cain,  solemnly  affirms : 

"This  account  is  given,  not  of  immortal  man,  but  of 
mortal  man,  and  of  sin  which  is  temporal.  As  both 
mortal  man  and  sin  have  a  beginning,  they  must  con- 
sequently have  an  end,  while  the  sinless,  real  man  is 
eternal." 

Having  called  it  all  an  error,  a  lie,  in  this  instance 
the  fact  and  reality  of  sin  and  mortal  man  seem  for 
the  nonce  to  be  admitted. 

This  confusion  of  terms  and  ideas,  this  denial  and 
admission  of  the  existence  of  the  same  things,  factors  "ImPOPtan* 

j     r  ,  ,.,-        •  •  Points"  of 

and  forces  in  human  life,  is  continually  met  with  as  "Science" 
one  turns  the  pages  of  "Science  and  Health."  The 
whole  atmosphere  of  the  book  is  perplexing,  confusing 
and  vague.  Misty  is  a  term  that  it  merits.  If  one 
asks,  What  do  these  people  believe  ?  he  is  met  with  the 
answer  that  they  believe  in  the  Bible  and  take  it  as 
the  basis  of  all  life  and  conduct.     But  we  have  seen 


146  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

how  they  take  it.  They  are  eclectic  and  esoteric,  and 
what  does  not  coincide  with  their  peculiar  theories  of 
Metaphysical  Healing  they  brand  as  false :  "It  must 
be  a  lie."  To  the  question  propounded  in  her  book, 
"Have  Christian  Scientists  any  religious  creed?"  the 
author  replies,  "They  have  not,  if  by  that  term  is 
meant  doctrinal  beliefs."  Then  follows  what  she  calls 
"the  Important  Points,"  or  religious  tenets,  of  Chris- 
tian Science: 


1.  As  adherents  of  Truth,  we  take  the  inspired  word  of  the 
Bible  as  our  sufficient  guide  to  eternal  life. 

2.  We  acknowledge  and  adore  one  supreme  and  infinite  God. 
We  acknowledge  his  Son,  one  Christ;  the  Holy  Ghost,  or 
divine  Comforter,  and  man  in  God's  image  and  likeness. 

3.  We  acknowledge  God's  forgiveness  of  sin  in  the  destruc- 
tion of  sin  and  the  spiritual  understanding  that  casts  out  evil 
as  unreal.  But  the  belief  in  sin  is  punished  so  long  as  the 
belief  lasts.  .  . 

4.  We  acknowledge  Jesus'  atonement  as  evidence  of  divine 
efficacious  Love,  unfolding  man's  unity  with  God  through 
Jesus  Christ,  the  Way-shower ;  and  we  acknowledge  that  man 
is  saved  through  Christ,  through  Truth,  Life,  and  Love  as 
demonstrated  by  the  Galilean  Prophet  in  healing  the  sick  and 
overcoming  sin  and  death. 

5.  We  acknowledge  that  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus  and  His 
resurrection  served  to  uplift  faith,  to  understand  eternal  Life, 
even  the  allness  of  Soul,  Spirit,  and  the  nothingness  of  matter. 

6.  And  we  solemnly  promise  to  watch  and  pray  for  that 
Mind  to  be  in  us  which  was  also  in  Christ  Jesus ;  to  do  unto 
others  as  we  would  have  them  do  unto  us ;  and  to  be  merciful, 
just,  and  pure. 


As  to  article  1  of  "Important  Points,"  we  have  seen 
that  what  militates  against  their  theories  they  label  as 
false  and  "a  lie." 

The  inspired  Word  says : 


The  "Key"  I47 

But  continue  thou  in  the  things  which  thou  hast  learned  and 
hast  been  assured  of,  knowing  of  whom  thou  hast  learned 
them; 

And  that  from  a  child  thou  hast  known  the  holy  Scriptures 
which  are  able  to  make  thee  wise  unto  salvation  through 
faith  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus. 

All  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God,  and  is  profitable 
for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruction  in 
righteousness : 

That  the  man  of  God  may  be  perfect,  thoroughly  furnished 
unto  all  good  works.— 2  Tim.  3 :  14-17. 

As  to  article  2,  the  first  clause  sounds  reverent  and 
Evangelical,  but  we  turn  the  page  to  find  that  God  is 
"Principle,"  not   a  person,  he  is  an  attribute,  not  a  Article  2 
loving  Father,  he  is  not  the  God  of  the  Bible,  but 
simply  "a  force  that  makes  for  righteousness.', 

It  will  be  noticed  that  "Scientists"  do  not  adore  the 
Son,  Christ,  but  simply  "acknowledge"  Him.  We 
glean  that  Jesus  is  a  phantom,  a  picture,  a  dream.  In 
him  is  not  united  God  and  man  in  indissoluble  union. 
He  says  that  he  and  the  Father  are  one.  "God  is  All- 
in-All"  to  "Science."  Jesus  in  this  scheme  is  not  a 
part  of  Deity.  And  the  Holy  Ghost  whom  they  "ac- 
knowledge," what  is  He?  The  Christian  Scientist 
makes  answer :  "This  Comforter  I  understand  to  be 
Divine  Science." 

What  is  it  that  they  acknowledge?  Principle, 
Truth,  Christian  Science.  They  acknowledge  abstrac- 
tions and  not  the  concrete  realities  of  the  universe. 

In  article  3  they  acknowledge  "God's  forgiveness  of 
sin  in  the  destruction  of  sin."     But  evil  is  "unreal." 
What  is  unreal  cannot  exist.    Sin,  evil,  wrong  are  only  sfnal 
dreams.     The  only  thing  that  is  punished  is  "the  be- 
lief in  sin."     Here  we  are  introduced  into  a  world 


148  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

where  phantoms  with  lurid  leer  mock  us  from  the 
shadows.  The  Bible  in  which  they  say  they  believe 
sets  forth  the  actuality  of  sin,  the  reality  of  the  sinner, 
the  necessity  of  the  atonement;  but  in  Christian  Sci- 
ence the  atonement  of  Jesus  is  lost  in  a  confused  maze 
of  salvation  through  "Truth,  Life,  and  Love  as  demon- 
strated by  the  Galilean  Prophet  in  healing  the  sick  and 
overcoming  sin  and  death." 

The  Bible  says  that  we  are  all  sinners,  and  sin  is  an 
actual  fact,  not  a  dream : 


For  all  have  sinned,  and  come  short  of  the  glory  of  God. — 
Rom.  3 :  23. 

There  is  none  that  understandeth,  there  is  none  that  seeketh 
after  God. 

They  are  all  gone  out  of  the  way,  they  are  together  become 
unprofitable;  there  is  none  that  doeth  good,  no,  not  one. — 
Rom.  3:  II,  12. 

This  is  a  faithful  saying,  and  worthy  of  all  acceptation,  that 
Christ  Jesus  came  into  the  world  to  save  sinners ;  of  whom  I 
am  chief. — 1  Tim.  1 :  15. 

For  what  the  law  could  not  do,  in  that  it  was  weak  through 
the  flesh,  God  sending  his  own  Son  in  the  likeness  of  sinful 
flesh,  and  for  sin,  condemned  sin  in  the  flesh. — Rom.  8 :  3. 

For  when  we  were  yet  without  strength,  in  due  time  Christ 
died  for  the  ungodly. 

For  scarcely  for  a  righteous  man  will  one  die :  yet  perad- 
venture  for  a  good  man  some  would  even  dare  to  die. 

But  God  commendeth  his  love  toward  us,  in  that,  while  we 
were  yet  sinners,  Christ  died  for  us. 

Much  more  then,  being  now  justified  by  his  blood,  we  shall 
be  saved  from  wrath  through  him. — Rom.  5 :  6-8. 

There  is  no  plainer  teaching  in  the  Bible  than  that 
Jesus  Christ  came  to  save  sinners.  Take  these 
passages : 

And  account  that  the  long-suffering  of  our  Lord  is  salva- 


The  "Key"  149 

tion-  even  as  our  beloved  brother  Paul  also  according  to  the 
wisdom  given  unto  him  hath  written  unto  you.— 2  Peter  3:15. 

Then  opened  he  their  understanding,  that  they  might  under- 
stand the  Scriptures, 

And  said  unto  them,  Thus  it  is  written  and  thus  it  be- 
hooved Christ  to  suffer,  and  to  rise  from  the  dead  the  third 

&And    that    repentance    and    remission    of    sins    should    be 
preached  in  his  name  among  all  nations,  beginning  at  Jeru- 

And  ye  are  witnesses  of  these  things.— Luke  24:45-48. 

The  crucifixion  and  the  resurrection  are  dwarfed  Article  5 
in  article  5  to  be  the  purveyors  of  a  false  philosophy. 
This  "acknowledgment"  serves  to  "uplift  faith,"  but 
faith  in  what?  Faith  in  the  "allness  of  Soul,  Spirit," 
and  also  "the  nothingness  of  matter/'  As  we  have 
stated  elsewhere,  the  death  of  Jesus,  according  to 
"Christian  Science,"  was  not  a  real  death.  Matter 
has  no  real  existence.  In  the  Gospel  story  of  these 
stupendous  transactions  Jesus  Christ  is  the  great  real- 
ity. His  death  was  a  reality ;  He  died  for  our  sins ; 
His  resurrection  was  real,  and  the  symbol  and  pledge 
of  our  own. 

In  article  6  the  believers  in  this  cult  promise  "to  Article  6 
watch  and  pray  for  that  Mind  to  be  in  us  which  was 
also  in  Christ  Jesus." 

What  does  this  mean?  Is  it  "Principle"  to  which 
they  pray?  Can  a  blind  force  or  an  attribute  hear  and 
answer  prayer?  We  roll  back  the  leaves  of  the  book 
and  read,  "God  is  not  moved  by  the  breath  of  praise." 
"Shall  we   ask   the   divine   Principle  to  do   His  own 

work?" 

In  the  closing  sentences  of  this  article  the  aspira- 
tional  side  of  Christian  Science  soars  aloft.    To  keep 


150  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

the  Golden  Rule,  to  be  merciful,  just,  and  pure,  is  the 
aim  of  a  noble  soul.  Christianity  teaches  these  things, 
but  does  not  omit  to  teach  many  others  deemed  by  the 
gospel  necessary  to  man's  life  on  earth.  In  the  Word 
of  God  there  is  no  utterance  to  parallel  such  as  this 
one  with  which  the  book  of  the  prophet  of  dreams  and 
unreality  abounds :  "Sin,  sickness,  and  death  must  be 
deemed  as  devoid  of  reality  as  they  are  of  good,  God." 
"Science"  in        According  to  the  belief  of  Christian  Scientists,  the 

the  . 

Apocalypse  Bible  foretells  the  coming  of  Christian  Science.  St. 
John  in  the  Apocalypse  has  foreshadowed  it  according 
to  "Science  and  Health,"  the  edition  of  1888  of  the 
book.    The  "Key"  proclaims  : 

Saint  John  writes,  in  the  tenth  chapter  of  his  Book  of 
Revelation:  "And  I  saw  another  mighty  angel  come  down 
from  Heaven,  clothed  with  a  cloud;  and  a  rainbow  was  upon 
his  head,  and  his  face  was  as  it  were  the  sun,  and  his  feet  as 
pillars  of  fire.  And  he  had  in  his  hand  a  little  book  open; 
and  he  set  his  right  foot  upon  the  sea,  and  his  left  foot  upon 
the  earth."  Is  this  angel,  or  message  from  God,  Divine 
Science,  that  comes  in  a  cloud?  To  mortals  obscure,  abstract, 
and  dark ;  but  a  bright  promise  crowns  its  brow.  When  un- 
derstood, it  is  Truth's  prism  and  praise ;  when  you  look  it 
fairly  in  the  face,  you  can  heal  by  its  means,  and  it  hath  for 
you  a  light  above  the  sun,  for  God  "is  the  light  thereof." 
.  .  .  This  angel  had  in  his  hand  a  "little  book,"  open  for 
all  to  read  and  understand.  Did  this  same  book  contain  the 
revelation  of  Divine  Science,  whose  "right  foot"  or  dominant 
power  was  upon  the  sea — upon  elementary,  latent  error,  the 
source  of  all  error's  visible  forms?  .  .  .  Then  will  a  voice 
from  harmony  cry :  "Go  and  take  the  little  book.  Take  it  and 
eat  it  up,  and  it  shall  make  thy  belly  bitter;  but  it  shall  be  in 
thy  mouth  sweet  as  honey."  Mortal,  obey  the  heavenly  evan- 
gel. Take  up  Divine  Science.  Study  it,  ponder  it.  It  will 
be  indeed  sweet  at  its  first  taste,  when  it  heals  you ;  but  mur- 
mur not  over  Truth,  if  you  find  its  digestion  bitter. 

When  you  approach  nearer  and  nearer  to  this  divine  Prin- 
ciple,  when  you   eat  the   divine  body  of  this   Principle,   thus 


The  "Key"  151 

partaking  of  the  nature,  or  primal  elements,  of  Truth  and 
Love,  do  not  be  surprised  nor  discontented  because  you  must 
share  the  hemlock  and  drink  the  bitter  herbs. 

In  the  opening  of  the  Sixth  Seal,  typical  of  six  thousand 
years  since  Adam,  there  is  one  distinctive  feature  which  has 
special  reference  to  the  present  age. 

Rev.  12:1.  "And  there  appeared  a  great  wonder  in 
Heaven — a  woman  clothed  with  the  sun,  and  the  moon  under 
her  feet,  and  upon  her  head  a  crown  of  twelve  stars."  .  .  . 
Rev.  12 :  5.  "And  she  brought  forth  a  man-child,  who  was 
to  rule  all  nations  with  a  rod  of  iron ;  and  her  child  was 
caught  up  unto  God,  and  to  his  Throne."  Led  on  by  the 
grossest  element  of  mortal  mind,  Herod  decreed  the  death  of 
every  male  child,  in  order  that  the  man  Jesus  {the  masculine 
representative  of  the  spiriHoal  idea)  might  never  hold  sway, 
and  so  deprive  Herod  of  his  crown.  The  impersonation  of  the 
spiritual  idea  had  a  brief  history  in  the  earthly  life  of  our 
Master;  but  "of  his  kingdom  there  shall  be  no  end,"  for 
Christ,  God's  idea,  will  eventually  rule  all  nations  and  peoples 
— imperatively,  absolutely,  finally — with  Divine  Science.  This 
immaculate  idea,  represented  first  by  man  and  last  by  woman, 
will  baptize  with  fire ;  and  the  fiery  baptism  will  burn  up  the 
chaff  of  error  with  the  fervent  heat  of  Truth  and  Love,  melt- 
ing and  purifying  even  the  gold  of  human  character. 

In  this  "Key"  found  in  the  1888  edition  we  read: 


John  the  Baptist  prophesied  the  coming  of  the  Immaculate 
Jesus  and  declared  that  this  spiritual  idea  was  the  Messiah 
who  would  baptize  with  the  Holy  Ghost— Divine  Science. 
The  son  of  the  Blessed  represents  the  fatherhood  of  God ;  and 
the  Revelator  completes  this  figure  with  the  Woman,  or  type 
of  God's  motherhood. 


In  the  1908  edition  the  passage  has  been  made  to 
read : 


"John  the  Baptist  prophesied  the  coming  of  the  immaculate 
Jesus,  and  John  saw  in  those  days  the  spiritual  idea  as  the 
Messiah,  who  would  baptize  with  the  Holy  Ghost— divine 
Science.  As  Elias  presented  the  idea  of  the  fatherhood  of 
God,   which   Jesus   afterwards    manifested,   so    the   Revelator 


152  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

completed  this  figure  with  woman,  typifying  the  spiritual  idea 
of  God's  motherhood.    The  moon  is  under  her  feet." 

Christian  Scientists  believe  that  this  woman  is 
"Mother"  Eddy.  When  approached  and  interrogated 
on  the  subject  they  may  tell  you  they  do  not,  but  the 
initiated  have  repeatedly  affirmed  that  such  is  the  faith 
of  their  inmost  heart. 

As  one  ponders  the  selections  already  made  and 
realizes  their  trend,  there  is  no  mistaking  the  fact  that 
this  "cult  of  American  ladies"  has  no  sympathy  with 
the  real  philosophy  of  Jesus,  or  of  God's  plan  of  salva- 
tion from  sin  delivered  in  the  Gospels  and  other  books 
of  the  New  Testament;  that  the  object  of  its  belief 
and  worship  is  principle,  idea,  blind  force,  and  an  in- 
forming mind,  but  not  the  God  and  Father  Almighty, 
Maker  of  heaven  and  earth,  the  Friend,  Protector  and 
Redeemer  and  Lover,  through  personal  interest  and 
affection,  of  all  humanity.  Accept  this  fad  for  a  uni- 
versal religion  and  the  springs  of  intellectual  growth, 
scientific  aspiration,  and  physical  betterment  and  well- 
being  would  be  dried  up  at  their  fountain  head.  A 
civilized  world  would  descend  by  leaps  and  bounds 
into  the  darkness  of  the  Middle  Ages. 


CHAPTER  X. 
CONFLICT  WITH  MEDICINE  AND  LAW. 

In  their  theories  of  mental  healing  Christian  Scien- 
tists early  came  into  conflict  with  medical  science,  and 
later  with  the  law  of  the  land.  So  long  as  "Science" 
was  presented  mainly  as  a  religion,  and  its  disciples,  £*aUeilgC 
following  Mental  Healing,  did  no  more  than  attempt 
to  cure  neurotic  troubles,  and  effect  cures  in  such 
cases  by  suggestion,  mesmerism,  mental  stimulus — 
what  physicians  of  many  schools  have  done  for  gener- 
ations— their  strange  teachings  received  no  more  than 
passing  notice.  This  is  a  country  of  great  liberty,  and 
people  do  not  interfere  with  the  isms  innumerable  that 
crop  out,  so  long  as  they  are  deemed  harmless.  Chris- 
tian Science  for  a  long  time  was  looked  upon  by  the 
mass  of  the  people,  the  medical  fraternity  and  the 
courts  as  no  more  harmful  nor  helpful  than  Theosophy, 
New  Thought,  Spiritualism  and  a  hundred  other  ir- 
rational cults.  But  at  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury it  made  bold  to  throw  down  the  challenge  to  medi- 
cine, and  to  support  its  claims,  when  opposed,  in  the 
courts  of  the  land.  Its  advocates  repeatedly  declared 
that  there  is  really  no  need  of  physicians  of  any  school, 
that  the  profession  of  the  surgeon  mifht  be  abolished 
for  the  good  of  humanity,  and  that  "Science"  could 
cure  any  disease  that  flesh  is  heir  to  without  the  aid 

153 


154  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

of  materia  medica  or  the  knife.  Then  came  a  flood  of 
newspaper  announcements  of  the  awful  failures  that 
had  attended  the  efforts  of  the  Metaphysical  Healers, 
and  calls  for  the  intervention  of  the  law  in  defence 
of  social  well-being.  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her  followers 
had  made  their  boast  in  the  public  prints  and  in  the 
courts  that  they  as  healers  of  the  sick  are  superior  to 
all  physicians  and  surgeons.  They  said  they  could 
cure  without  the  intervention  of  an  art  that  from  crude 
beginnings  through  the  long  centuries  has  grown  to 
be  a  safeguard  against  disease  and  by  its  investigations, 
its  intelligence  and  its  skill  has  been  a  bulwark  against 
contagion,  ignorance,  and  innumerable  disasters. 

Because  of  these  things,  it  is  the  aim  of  this  chapter 
to  test  the  tenets  and  practice  of  the  "Science"  by  the 
position,  discoveries,  and  accomplishments  of  the 
Healing  Art  in  the  hands  of  that  great  body  of  men 
and  women  who  believe  that  this  world  is  real  and 
that  its  experiences  in  our  mortal  life  of  sin,  sickness, 
and  death  are  real  also. 

The  conflict  between  "Science"  and  the  medical 
fraternity  and  the  courts  is  a  natural  sequence  of  the 
basal  utterances  laid  down  by  this  singularly  gifted 
and  ambitious  woman  in  the  two  books  called  "Sci- 
ence and  Health"  and  her  "Miscellaneous  Writings." 
In  the  latter  work  she  gives  the  world  her  first  plank 
in  this  platform  of  negations,  dreams,  and  imaginings, 
in  which  all  reality  is  in  the  eye  of  your  mind : 

"My  first  plank  in  the  platform  of  Christian  Science 
is  as  follows :  There  is  no  life,  truth,  intelligence,  or 
substance  in  matter." 


Conflict  With  Medicine  and  Law  155 

"Matter  is  the  unreal  and  temporal." 

"God  is  all  and  in  all.  What  can  be  more  than  all  ? 
Nothing;  and  this  is  just  what  I  call  matter— noth- 
ing." 

It  is  right  here  that  this  prophet  of  dreams  and 
illusive  thinking  founds  her  healing  system.  For  she 
steps  boldly  out  on  the  clouds,  and,  rocked  by  the 
wind,  sings  with  transcendental  unconcern,  in  spite  of 
experience:  "Here  is  found  the  pith  of  the  basal 
statement  of  the  cardinal  point  in  Christian  Science, 
that  matter  and  evil  (including  all  inharmony,  sin, 
disease,  death)  are  unreal."  Now  we  are  at  the  heart 
of  Christian  Science  as  a  healing  system.  It  under- 
takes to  deal  with  that  which  is  unreal,  a  phantom,  a  • 
shadow,  and  cure  it. 

Why  should  not  a  Christian  Scientist,  so  believing, 
defy  the  arrayed  intelligence  and  science  of  all  man- 
kind? Why  not?  She  says:  "Sin,  sickness,  and 
death  .  .  .  are  without  real  origin  or  existence. 
They  have  neither  principle  nor  permanence,  but  be- 
long, with  all  that  is  material  and  temporal,  to  the 
nothingness  of  error  which  imitates  the  creations  of 
Deity." 

Come,  let  us  reason  together  with  our  Christian  A  Cult  of 
Science  friends.  If  the  statements  so  confidently  put  Negation 
forth  by  this  founder  of  a  new  school  of  healing  be  in 
accord  with  fact,  then  there  is  no  need  of  any  healing 
cult,  for  nobody  was  ever  sick,  no  doctor  ever  existed, 
no  crime  was  ever  committed,  no  judge  ever  convicted 
of  wrong-doing,  for  there  never  was  any  wrong-do- 
ing.   Right  and  wrong  are  in  endless  confusion,  for  it 


156  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

is  only  thinking  that  makes  them  so.  There  never 
was  any  Decalogue.  If  a  Christian  Science  advocate  of 
these  sublimated  doctrines  claims  that  I  struck  him  in 
the  face  with  my  hand,  all  I  need  to  do  to  disprove 
such  an  absurd  statement  is  simply  to  assert,  "My 
hand  is  nothing.  My  hand  is  matter ;  matter  is  noth- 
ing ;  nothing  could  not  strike  any  one." 

No  wonder  that  the  disciples  of  this  bold  thinker  of 
the  unthinkable  go  off  into  all  sorts  of  vagaries  when 
the  healing  the  body  ("nothing")  occupies  the  mind. 
How  is  the  reasoning  human  mind  to  maintain  any  re- 
spect for  itself  and  accept  such  absurd  statements? 
The  senses  rebel  against  it.  Yes,  but  there  are  no 
senses.  Listen  to  the  founder:  "Any  supposed  in- 
formation coming  from  the  body  or  from  inert  matter, 
as  if  they  were  intelligent,  is  an  illusion  of  the  mortal 
mind— one  of  its  dreams.  Realize  that  the  evidence 
of  the  senses  is  not  to  be  accepted  in  the  case  of  sick- 
ness any  more  than  it  is  in  the  case  of  sin." 

What  have  we  here?  The  evidences  of  the  senses 
are  not  to  be  accepted  in  the  sick  room.  The  evidences 
of  the  senses  are  not  to  be  accepted  by  the  judge  upon 
the  bench  in  the  court  of  law.  Surely  "Mortal  exist- 
ence is  a  dream;  it  has  no  real  entity."  ("Science  and 
Health,"  page  146.) 

Not  only  is  this  system  of  healing  diseases  in  con- 
flict with  the  medical  faculty  and  with  all  the  facts  of 
experience,  but  its  peculiar  tenets  must  inevitably 
bring  it  continually  into  a  struggle  with  the  Boards  of 
Health  and  the  courts  of  the  land.  The  truth  appears 
on  every  hand  that  it  has  set  itself  to  disobey  the  laws 


Conflict  With  Medicine  and  Law  157 

of  health  and  t )  oppose  all  regulations  that  stand  «as 
safeguards  to  the  community. 

Some  time  ago  a  Christian  Science  healer  was  ques- 
tioned by  a  surrogate  in  one  of  the  New  York  City 
courts.  The  magistrate  asked:  "When  you  find  a 
mortal  human  body  in  the  same  room  with  another 
mortal,  and  one  human  body  has  the  measles,  do  you 
think  that  the  other  human  body  could  catch  the 
measles  ?" 

"Some  think  so,"  replied  the  healer,  "but  the  divine 
mind  does  not  know  the  measles."  '"Is  it  your  habit  to 
report  contagious  diseases  to  the  Board  «of  Health  ?" 
"I  have  never  done  so,"  boldly  answered  the  lady. 
"Why  did  the  patient  die?"  pursued  the  magistrate. 
The  answer  the  lady  made  was :  "Because  there  was 
not  sufficient  understanding  on  the  part  of  the  healer 
to  at  that  case."  This  juggling  with  sacred  things  and 
some  of  the  deepest  realities  of  human  life  and  experi- 
ence would  provoke  risibility  if  the  expressions  were 
not  so  blasphemous  or  utterly  vague  and  meaningless. 
"The  divine  mind  does  not  know  measles"!  If  this 
means  the  divine  mind  in  man,  it  is  more  than  an 
eclipse  of  thought  by  muddy  and  addled  words,  it  is  a 
simple  and  inexcusable  falsehood.  If  it  refers  to  the 
mind  of  Deity,  it  is  blasphemous ! 

Sir  B.  C.  Brodie  more  than  a  generation  ago  wrote  a  Pat 
— and  it  appears  as  true  a  reflection  of  the  world  to- 
day as  sixty  years  agone :  "Quackery  may,  in  general 
terms,  be  defined  as  an  arrogant  assumption  of  some 
mysterious  knowledge  which  is  not  really  possessed. 
Words  govern  the  generality  of  the  world,  who  sel- 


158  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

dom  go  so  deep  as  to  look  into  things,  and  impostors 
well  know  how  likely  their  cause  is  to  succeed  if  their 
terms  are  but  once  admitted.  Human  credulity,  in- 
deed, seems  wholly  incurable,  and,  in  spite  of  all  warn- 
ing, we  see  one  generation  after  another,  with  their 
eyes  wide  open,  walk  into  the  same  gulf  of  fraud, 
quackery,  and  imposture." 

As  regards  sickness,  disease,  and  healing  the  body, 
as  well  as  other  points  where  Christian  Science  touches 
upon  the  province  of  the  physician  and  the  reality  of 
human  law,  we  find  the  disciples  of  Mrs.  Eddy  ready 
to  meet  us  with  a  host  of  quotations  from  the  "Moth- 
er's" books,  all  setting  forth  in  bald  statement  the  al- 
legiance of  Christian  Science  to  reason,  Christianity, 
sound  morals  and  reverence  for  human  law.  Not- 
withstanding this,  the  reader  will  find  page  after  page 
contradicting  its  fellow,  reason  and  unreason  lying 
down  together  like  the  lion  and  the  lamb,  or  brigand- 
like ferociously  pistoling  each  other.  The  object  of 
this  medley,  if  it  has  purpose  in  its  seeming  madness, 
is  to  satisfy  both  the  thinking  and  the  unthinking,  and 
give  scope  and  plan  for  defence  against  all  attacks, 
relying  on  the  unwillingness  of  the  many  to  make  any 
patient  investigation. 

Mrs.  Eddy  teaches  her  followers  to  hide  contagion 
from  health  officers  and  to  declare  that  disease  does 
not  exist,  by  all  of  which  she  encourages  crime  and 
promotes  falsehood.  In  her  glossary  where  words 
and  ideas  are  defined  in  the  terms  of  Christian  Sci- 
ence, the  reader  may  become  bewildered  at  incoheren- 
ces and  maniacal  utterances  and  think  himself  in  the 


Conflict  With  Medicine  and  Law  159 

ward  of  an  institution  incarcerating  megalomaniacs. 
Witness : 

Matter.    Sensation  in  the  sensationless. 

Man.    An  illusion. 

And  illusion  calls  itself  a  man. 

Death.    An  illusion. 

Food.     An  illusion.    An  illusion  to  be  dispensed  with. 

Education.    A  cause  of  disease. 

Flesh.    An  illusion. 

Knowledge.    The  origin  of  sin,  sickness,  and  death. 

Hygiene.     Ignorance  of  a.  blessing. 

Does  any  one  wonder  that  with  such  definitions  as 
the  basis  for  the  building  up  of  a  system  of  Mental 
Cure  or  any  other  kind  of  cure,  reason  and  unreason, 
sanity  and  insanity,  ignorance  and  folly  should  sit 
cheek  by  jowl ! 

Mrs.  Eddy  repeatedly  says  that  there  is  no  such  0n 
thing  as  consumption,  yet'  on  pages  422  and  423  of  Consumption 
"Science   and    Health"   careful   instructions   are    laid 
down  for  the  cure  of  this  white  plague. 

"If  the  case  to  be  mentally  treated  is  consumption, 
take  up  the  leading  points  included  (according  to  be- 
lief) in  this  disease.  Show  that  it  is  not  inherited; 
that  inflammation,  tubercles,  hemorrhage  and  decom- 
position are  beliefs,  images,  of  mortal  thoughts,  su- 
perimposed upon  the  body;  that  they  are  not  the 
Truth  of  man;  that  they  should  be  treated  as  error, 
and  put  out  of  thought.  Then  these  ills  will  disappear. 
If  the  lungs  are  disappearing,  this  is  hut  one  of  the  be- 
liefs of  mortal  mind.  Mortal  man  will  be  less  mortal 
when  he  learns  that  lungs  never  sustained  existence 
and  can  never  destroy  God,  who  is  our  Life.    When 


V, 


160  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

this  is  understood  man  will  be  more  godlike.  What 
if  the  lungs  are  ulcerated?  God  is  more  to  a  man 
than  his  lungs;  and  the  less  we  acknowledge  matter 
and  its  laws,  the  more  immortality  we  possess.  .  .  . 
Never  believe  that  lungs  or  any  portion  of  the  body 
vcan  destroy  you.?' 
iuitiiiKimiiy?  Here  is  a  mixture  indeed  of  the  material  and  the 
spiritual  kingdoms.  Food  is  an  illusion  to  be  dis- 
pensed with,  and  you  may  live  without  lungs !  Would 
not  any  of  our  great  pathologists  pronounce  such 
weird  glimmerings  the  product  of  an  unsound  mind? 
Again  and  again  it  has  been  demonstrated  that  a  per- 
son may  be  afflicted  with  a  religious  mania,  or  be  de- 
mented on  some  one  point,  and  in  every  other  way  be 
perfectly  sound  and  sane.  Some  years  since  a  man 
by  the  name  of  Sperling  was  before  the  commission- 
ers for  an  inquiry  concerning  his  sanity.  He  testified 
that  he  was  restrained  unlawfully  of  his  liberty  and 
confined  in  a  sanitarium  for  the  insane.  During  the 
interview  with  the  commissioners  he  said  among  other 
things : 

"I  have  always  been  a  good  man  and  of  good 
habits.  I  do  not  smoke,  drink,  or  use  bad  language. 
Ever}  night  before  going  to  bed  I  kneel  down  and  say 
my  prayers.  I  have  been  a  good  citizen  and  good  to 
the  poor.  Yet  these  people  say  I  am  insane.  Do  I 
look  like  an  insane  man?  Do  I  act  crazy?  Put  any 
question  to  me  that  you  like,  and  I  will  answer  it  as 
best  I  can." 

Then  as  the  interview  was  progressing,  suddenly  he 
broke  out  on  a  new  tack : 


Conflict  With  Medicine  and  Law  161 

"Now  I  have  told  you  all  about  my  life  and  am 
ready  to  answer  any  questions.  I  haven't  told  you 
all  I  could  do;  I  don't  like  to  talk  about  that,  for  you 
might  be  like  other  people  and  think  me  crazy.  I 
am  the  Pope  and  can  take  people  out  of  hell  and  put 
them  in  heaven,  but  I  won't  talk  about  that,  or  you 
might  think  I  was  crazy." 

That  poor  man  firmly  believed  that  he  had  a  divine 
revelation,  that  his  superhuman  powers  were  con- 
ferred on  him  by  divinity. 

Is  there  not  evidence  of  madness  in  this  strange 
medley  of  unreason  that  Christian  Science  exalts?  It 
appears  neither  divine  nor  human,  but  the  unconnected 
and  illogical  mumblings  of  an  unsound  mind.  It 
comes  in  conflict  with  medicine  that  seeks  to  cure  dis- 
ease, it  arrays  itself  against  hygiene  and  against 
health  boards  whose  purpose  is  to  prevent  disease,  it 
comes  in  sharp  clash  with  the  courts  whose  duty  is  to 
uphold  the  laws  of  the  land.  Should  the  community 
let  go  unchallenged  the  statement  that  it  is  error  that 
imposes  penalties  for  the  violation  of  the  laws  of 
health,  and  that  it  is  mind,  not  matter,  that  infects? 
Should  this  doctrine  be  given  the  right  of  way,  it 
would  open  the  door  to  the  ravages  of  plague  and  epi- 
demic, savagery  and  anarchy,  and  turn  the  dial  of 
civilization  backward  to  the  shadows  of  the  dark  ages 
of  ignorance,  alchemy,  astrology  and  demoniacal  pos- 
session. 

"Science  and  Health"  makes  these  startling  asser- 
tions : 

"Every  law  of  matter  or  of  the  body  supposed  to 


162  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

govern  man  is  rendered  null  and  void  by  the  law  of 
strange  God.    In  ignorance  of  our  God-given  rights  we  submit 

statements  to  unjust  decrees,  and  the  bias  of  education  enforces 
this  slavery." 

"The  laws  of  mortal  belief  are  destroyed  by  the  un- 
derstanding that  soul  is  immortal,  and  that  mortal 
mind  cannot  legislate  the  times,  periods  and  types  of 
disease  wherewith  men  die.  God  legislates,  but  God 
is  not  the  author  of  barbarous  codes." 

"Expose  the  Error  which  would  impose  penalties 
for  transgressions  of  the  physical  laws  of  health — 
supposed  laws  of  matter,  lacking  divine  authority  and 
having  only  human  approval  for  their  sanction.  If 
half  the  attention  given  to  hygiene  were  given  to  the 
study  of  Christian  Science  and  its  elevation  of  thought, 
this  alone  would  usher  in  the  millennium." 

What  does  the  first  sentence  of  the  above  quotation 
mean?  The  law  of  the  body,  the  law  of  nature,  the 
law  that  governs  matter  is  not  the  law  of  God!  If 
this  teaches  anything,  it  is  that  all  Christian  Scientists 
may  rightfully,  according  to  some  supposed  divine 
law,  rebel  against  the  law  of  the  State  that  attempts 
to  regulate  questions  of  health  and  hygiene.  The  law 
has  as  its  aim  to  prevent  disease.  But  to  thwart  and 
break  it  is  a  virtue  in  the  minds  of  these  people. 

Recently  in  a  certain  section  of  New  York  a  house 
in  which  a  scarlet  fever  case  of  very  virulent  type  oc- 
curred was  not  fully  and  completely  fumigated  accord- 
ing to  the  law  governing  such  cases.  The  family  in 
which  the  sickness  took  place  removed  to  another  city. 
The  place  was  rented.     A  new  family  moved  in.     A 


Conflict  With  Medicine  and  Law  163 

daughter  was  placed  in  the  very  chamber  in  which  the 
contagious  disease  had  run  its  course.  She  took  the 
scarlet  fever  and  died.  The  strangers  knew  nothing  A  Cnse  in 
of  what  had  transpired  within  those  walls  until  after 
the  death  had  taken  place.  "Science"  says  it  is  a 
virtue  not  to  fumigate;  it  is  laudable  not  fed  use  any 
precautions  to  prevent  disease;  there  is  nothing  the 
matter. 

"Obedience  to  the  so-called  laws  of  physical  health 
has  not  checked  sickness,"  is  the  declaration  of  this 
prophet  of  license,  which  evidently  means,  do  as  you 
please,  regardless  of  the  rights  of  the  other  man,  no 
matter  what  experience  has  declared  will  be  the  conse- 
quence. The  plain  teaching  of  this  book  is  that  a 
healer  or  disciple  of  the  cult  need  not  consider  pesti- 
lential surroundings,  foulness,  filth,  vitiated  air,  or 
like  circumstances.  The  refuse  heap  breathing  miasma 
is  at  the  door,  but  shut  it  out  of  your  mind,  do  not 
think  about  it,  then  all  will  be  well.  Mrs.  Eddy  fol- 
lows these  teachings  with  an  illustration,  of  course 
quite  convincing  to  the  initiated,  but  approaching  cari- 
cature to  the  outside  investigator  not  hypnotized  by 
idle  dreams  and  dazing  fancies.  "A  hint  may  be  taken 
from  the  immigrant  whose  filth  does  not  affect  his 
happiness,  inasmuch  as  mind  and  body  rest  upon  the 
same  basis."  "Bathing  and  rubbing,"  we  are  told,  "to 
alter  the  secretions  or  to  remove  unhealthy  exhala- 
tions from  the  cuticle,  receive  a  useful  rebuke  from 
Christian  Science." 

What  does  all  this  mean?  It  either  means  some- 
thing or  else  it  is  arrant  nonsense.     If  the  laws  of 


164  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

health  were  wiped  out  and  the  principles  of  hygiene 
were  forgotten,  no  longer  would  the  greed  of  men  be 
The  i,»Kicni  restrained  in  the  building  of  unsanitary  tenements  and 
dwellings  for  the  poor.  The  conditions  are  bad 
enough  now;  but  let  these  tenets  be  accepted  as  the 
ultimate  law  of  humanity,  and  how  would  the  poor 
be  housed?  The  conditions  in  New  York  City  in  the 
congested  quarters  of  the  East  Side  would  become 
speedily  a  hundred-fold  worse.  Springing  up  on 
every  side  one  will  see  the  sweatshop,  the  ill-ventilated 
schoolroom,  the  windowless,  airless  and  dark  sleeping 
room.  Sanitation  and  ventilation  are  illusions.  Bad 
air  and  good  air,  the  cesspool  and  the  marble  bath  of 
scrupulous  cleanliness,  are  alike  fitting  and  proper, 
according  to  these  teachings.  Tear  down  your  small- 
pox hospitals  with  their  sanitary  regulations  and  iso- 
lation, remove  your  quarantine,  let  the  leper  eat  at 
your  table,  and  fight  the  health  officer  who  would  pre- 
vent the  contagion  of  diphtheria  in  your  home.  Let 
the  slums  breed  plagues  again  as  they  did  in  ancient 
London.  Does  the  common  sense  of  the  American 
people  want  such  results?  Yet  this  doctrine  which 
absolutely  ignores  human  experience,  if  carried  to  its 
logical  sequence,  or,  indeed,  if  its  teaching  is  but  par- 
tially obeyed,  threatens  the  well-being  of  society  and 
untold  ills. 

What  conclusion  are  we  to  reach  concerning  the 
motives,  good  sense  and  judgment  of  people  who  ad- 
vocate such  theories?  Either  they  are  playing  with 
words  and  do  not  mean  what  they  say  or  they  are 
trying  to  perpetrate  a  huge  hoax  on  an  unsuspecting 


Conflict  With  Medicine  and  Law  165 

public,  or  their  language  has  some  occult  or  symbolic 
meaning    unknown    to    either    lexicon    or    grammar. 
Either  they  must  be  unsettled  in  their  minds,  or  they 
speak  simply  a  philosophical  language  having  nothing 
to  do  with  the  ordinary  experience  of  daily   human 
life.   Whichever  way  we  look  at  it,  however,  the  teach- 
ing hides  a  danger,  and  its  exploitation  is  a  menace 
fraught  with  incalculable  harm  to  the  social  structure. 
In  a  somewhat  celebrated  case  the  following  ques- 
tions were  put  to  a  certain  Mrs.  Holden  and  compla-  w,tneSe* 
cently  answered  by  her,  so  that  under  the  solemnity  of  stand 
a  sacred  oath    (or  is  the  oath   simply  a  dream  and 
nothing,  and  so  it  matters  not  what  is  said  in  court, 
or  out  of  it?)  we  have  this  testimony: 

Q.  Do  Christian  Scientists  die?    A.  They  do. 

DhVsician.S hriAStlTfc  Scijntists  attend  persons  also  attended  by 
physicians?  A.  They  do  not.  That  is,  not  if  they  follow  the 
rules  laid  down  in  the  book,  "Science  and  Health  " 

y.  Is  it  the  rule  that  no  Christian  Science  healer  should 
anTb'solufe'ule.  attCnded  *  "  "*-*  P^sidan?  A!  It  is 
suPedly^    °anCer   bG   °Ured   by   Christia*    Science?     A.  As- 

Q.  Smallpox?    A.  Assuredly. 

y.  Can  consumption  be  cured?     A.  It  can 

ChVi-st^slnchee?dXeTeheykca0nWn   *°  "-**"  be   CUred   b* 

coSd^veTrfo^d&^sTT!^  ^  **  ^ 

Mrs.  Holden  was  asked  if  she  believed  in  the  Apos- 
tles Creed,  which  was  repeated  in  her  hearing,  and  she 
assented  to  it.  At  the  same  trial,  the  same  person  be- 
mg  on  the  stand,  the  lawyer  asked  her  if  the  book 
called  Christ  and  Christmas"  was  an  authorized  book 
of  the  Christian  Science  Church.     On  her  declaring 


Instructions 


1 66  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

that  it  was,  he  called  her  attention  to  three  illustrations 
in  the  volume.  One  of  them  represented  Christ  rais- 
ing a  dead  man ;  another  showed  Mrs.  Eddy  in  the  act 
of  raising  a  sick  man. 

Q.  As  a  matter  of  fact  you  don't  claim  to  raise  the  dead? 
Christian  Science  does  not  claim  to  be  able  to  do  that?  A. 
Christ  did  it. 

Q.  You  believe  you  can  do  anything  Christ  did?  A.  We 
believe  that  Christ  was  infinitely  better  and  purer  and  had  a 
far  better  understanding  of  the  mercy  of  God  than  any  one  in 
these  days.     We  believe  that  the  power  is  the  same. 

Q.  Still  you  have  not  raised  the  dead?  A.  We  have  not. 
Then  with  some  confusion  the  witness  added,  "I  have  not." 

Here  are  some  of  the  instructions  called  "scientific," 
which  the  founder  of  this  system  has  given  to  its  dis- 
ciples : 

"He  who  is  ignorant  of  what  is  termed  hygienic 
law  is  more  receptive  of  spiritual  power  and  faith  in 
one  God  than  the  devotee  of  this  supposed  law." 
("Science  and  Health,"  page  381.) 

"The  less  we  know  or  think  about  hygiene,  the  less 
we  are  predisposed  to  sickness."  ("Science  and 
Health,"  page  388.) 

"Physiology  is  one  of  the  apples  of  the  Tree  of 
Knowledge.  Error  declared  that  eating  this  fruit 
would  open  man's  eyes  and  make  him  a  god.  Instead 
of  so  doing,  it  closes  man's  eyes  to  man's  God-given 
dominion  over  earth.  Obedience  to  the  so-called 
physical  laws  of  health  have  not  checked  sickness." 

"Physiology  exalts  matter  and  dethrones  Mind." 
(Page  43.) 

"When  there  are  fewer  doctors  and  less  thought 


Conflict  With  Medicine  and  Law         167 

given  to  sanitary  subjects,  there  will  be  better  consti- 
tutions and  less  disease."     (Page  67.) 

"It  is  not  scientific  (Christian)  to  examine  the  body 
to  ascertain  if  we  are  in  health,  and  learn  our  life 
prospects,  because  this  is  to  infringe  upon  God's  gov- 
ernment/'    (Page  214.) 

"In  families  where  laws  of  health  are  strictly  ob- 
served there  is  most  sickness."  ("Miscellaneous  Writ- 
ings," page  6.) 

"The  Christian  Scientist,  thoroughly  understanding 
Mental  anatomy,  discerns  and  deals  with  the  real  cause 
of  disease."     (Page  447.) 

"Whoever  would  demonstrate  the  healing  of  Chris- 
tian Science  must  abide  strictly  by  its  rules,  heed  every 
statement,  and  advance  from  the  rudiments  laid 
down." 

Under  the  spell  of  such  teaching  no  wonder  that  a 
premium  is  placed  on  ignorance  and  that  we  have  a 
system  that  must  inevitably  clash  with  the  law.  A 
few  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  favorite  expressions  on  the  sub- 
ject of  hygiene  are  culled  as  a  preface  to  a  case  of  re- 
markable pathos  recited  in  the  courts  of  Wisconsin : 

"Hygiene,  ignorance  of  a  blessing;  is  found  in- 
effectual; less  known  about  it  the  better;  not  God's 
plan ;  rebuked  by  Christian  teaching ;  usurps  the  power 
of  mind ;  must  we  not,  then,  call  the  so-called  law  of 
matter  a  canon  more  honored  in  the  breach  than  the 
observance?" 

A  notable  instance  where  the  law  clashed  with 
Christian  Science  is  the  case  of  a  little  girl  named 
Irma  Grosenbach.    Her  parents  were  members  of  the 


1 68  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

cult.    She  was  eleven  years  of  age  and  was  sent  home 
a  victim         one  day  from  the  public  school  on  account  of  a  severe 

to    "Science" 

attack  of  vomiting.  The  mother  put  her  to  bed.  She 
sent  for  Christian  Science  healers.  They  came  and 
began  exercising  the  power  of  mental  treatment.  Not 
a  single  attempt  was  made  to  alleviate  the  excruciating 
agonies  of  the  child  in  any  way.  They  kept  up  the 
treatment  until  midnight.  Regular  physicians,  con- 
ducting a  post-mortem  examination  to  find  the  cause 
cf  her  death,  pronounced  it  beyond  a  doubt  diphtheria. 
The  father,  mother,  and  the  healers  were  summoned 
to  court.  In  the  examination,  where  testimony  had 
to  be  drawn  out  of  reluctant  witnesses,  enough  was 
established  to  present  a  picture  of  pathetic  and  awful 
suffering  on  the  part  of  the  child,  and  brutal  and  in- 
human indifference,  in  the  name  of  "Science,"  on  the 
part  of  the  healers.  One  Emma  Nichols  was  asked  to 
tell  about  the  passing  away  of  the  child.  She  was  in 
a  pitiful  condition,  with  swollen  throat,  awful  thirst, 
moaning  and  vomiting.  At  last  at  the  request  of  the 
father  the  sufferer  was  given  a  little  piece  of  ice.  In 
this  woful  crisis,  the  healer  said : 

"There  seemed  to  be  a  little  sound  of  her  voice  with 
her — it  didn't  seem  like  a  groan  nor  like  distress — 
and  she  had  an  impulse  to  vomit,  and  so  I  went  close 
to  her  and  put  a  towel  under  her  chin  and  lifted  her 
head,  and  I  went  aside  from  the  bed  that  she  might 
vomit  easier,  and  as  I  lifted  her  she  didn't  breathe 
again.  That  is,  she  breathed,  made  a  motion,  and  as 
I  laid  her  back  again  she  breathed  one  breath,  and 
then  she  didn't  take  the  next ;  it  was  not  particularly 


Conflict  With  Medicine  and  Law  169 

shorter  than  the  breath  before,  and  then,  for  an  in- 
stant, I  thought  that  she  was — I  didn't  know  what  to 
think,  but  I  kept  waiting  for  her  to  breathe  again." 

The  mother  was  standing  near  and  cried :  "Why, 
the  child  is  gone !"  Think  of  a  woman  dawdling  with 
the  grave  issues  of  life  and  death  and  leaving  a  help- 
less little  child  to  suffer  such  horrible  tortures,  while 
remedial  agencies  were  left  untried ! 

The  judge,  in  giving  his  verdict,  among  other  perti- 
nent matters,  declared : 

"Under  existing  laws,  to  heal  the  sick,  or,  to  use 
equivalent  words,  'to  practice  medicine/  is  not  con- 
strued by  the  courts  as  applying  exclusively  to  the 
administration  of  drugs  and  the  use  of  instruments, 
but  may  properly  be  construed  to  mean  the  treatment 
in  any  manner  of  one  who  is  ill,  as,  for  instance,  a 
Christian  Science  healer,  or  practitioner,  for  a  fee. 
Consequently  I  am  constrained  to  hold  that  Christian 
Scientists  undertaking  the  cure  of  the  sick  without 
having  first  a  license  to  practice  medicine  become  sub- 
ject to  the  penalties  of  the  law.  This  in  no  way  inter- 
feres with  the  religious  belief  of  anybody." 

Again  he  said: 

"However  free  the  exercise  of  religion  may  be,  it 
must  be  subordinate  to  the  laws  of  the  land.     .     .     ." 

"I  am  of  the  opinion,  and  so  find,  that  the  defend- 
ants, ...  in  treating  the  said  Irma  Grosenbach 
as  they  did,  came  within  the  provisions  of  the  law  for- 
bidding persons  not  qualified  to  practice  medicine,  and 
that  they  are  guilty  in  manner  and  form  as  charged  in 
the  complaint.    The  sentence  of  the  court  is  that  each 


170  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

of  said  defendants  pay  a  fine  of  $50  and  costs,  or  in 
lieu  thereof  stand  committed  to  the  House  of  Correc- 
tion of  the  City  of  Milwaukee  for  the  term  of  thirty 
days." 

Sixteen  hours  or  more  this  little  victim  of  Christian 
Science  lingered,  nature  fighting  to  retain  its  lease 
of  life,  but  fighting  alone  and  all  in  vain.  Under 
such  circumstances  mortal  existence  could  not  be  pro- 
longed, and  the  spirit  of  the  child  martyr  fled  to  God. 
Christian  Science  talks  about  its  charity,  sympathy, 
and  good  deeds,  but  doctrines  that  make  the  heart  ice 
and  the  ears  mute  to  the  appeal  of  an  innocent,  help- 
less child  are  in  truth  a  peril  to  society. 

William  A.  Purrington,  a  lawyer,  after  according 
to  Christian  Science,  its  doctrines  and  practice,  a  most 
exhaustive  investigation,  has  given  as  his  testimony : 

"We  devoutly  believe  that  Mrs.  Eddy  is  an  instru- 
ment in  the  hand  of  God,  not  for  the  healing  of  the 
nations,  but  to  humble  us  intellectually  by  showing 
that,  at  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century,  professedly 
intelligent  persons  can  be  as  easily  duped  by  her  as 
their  forebears  were  by  Cagliostro  at  the  close  of 
the  eighteenth  century." 

Amid  the  laudations  of  the  march  of  intellectual 
progress  witnessed  by  the  twentieth  century,  the  men 
of  giant  brains  that  contribute  to  the  mighty  move- 
ments of  modern  thought,  what  words  of  burning  elo- 
quence are  heard  in  praise  of  Christian  Science  ?  Not 
one.  Why?  It  is  the  one  "Science"  that  proclaims 
an  empty  head — illusion — and  puts  a  premium  on  ig- 
norance and  fantastic  inconsistencies. 


CHAPTER  XL 
THE  MASK  OF  DELUSION. 

The  most  charitable  view  of  Christian  Science  is  J««*«*  on 
to  regard  it  as  wearing  the  mask  of  delusion  on 
the  face  of  experience  and  actuality.  Mrs.  Eddy 
is  under  the  hallucination  that  she  is  led  by 
divine  inspiration  and  is  a  peculiar  favorite  of 
Heaven.  In  December,  1900,  she  wrote  to  the  Bos- 
ton Herald:  "I  should  blush  to  write  of  'Science 
and  Health,  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures'  as  I  have, 
were  it  of  human  origin,  and  I,  apart  from  God,  its 
author.  But  as  I  was  only  a  scribe  echoing  the  har- 
monies of  heaven  in  divine  Metaphysics,  I  cannot  be 
supermodest  in  my  estimate  of  the  Christian  Science  ^ 
Text-Book,"  and  she  is  not! 

Here  this  self-appointed  prophet  puts  herself  in  the 
closest  possible  relationship  to  Deity.  She  is  the  spe- 
cial vehicle  of  a  divine  revelation.  She  is  under  the 
delusion  that  God  has  exalted  her  to  complete  the 
mission  of  Jesus  Christ.  In  "Pulpit  and  Press"  she 
has  written :  "What  I  am  it  is  for  God  to  declare  in 
his  infinite  mercy."  Again  she  says:  "Whoever  in 
any  age  expresses  most  of  the  spirit  of  Truth  and 
Love,  the  principle  of  God's  idea,  has  most  of  the 
spirit  of  Christ,  of  that  mind  which  was  in  Christ 
Jesus.     If  Christian   Scientists  find   in  my  writings, 

171 


17a  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

teaching,  and  example  a  greater  degree  of  this  spirit 
than  in  others,  they  can  justly  declare  it."  In  her  new 
bible  she  defines  God  to  be  this  Truth,  Love,  and  Prin- 
ciple about  which  she  discourses  in  the  above.  What 
is  it  that  she  really  says  to  her  followers  and  the  world, 
if  her  statements  on  this  subject  are  not  avowals  of  her 
connection  with  Deity? 

Those  who  have  formerly  listened  to  her  person^1 
oral  teachings  declare  that  she  hesitated  not  to  make 
herself  equal  with  Christ  and  possessed  of  all  the  pow- 
ers that  Jesus  had.  In  her  own  person  and  to  this  age, 
she  wants  to  be  considered  as  having  a  similar  mission 
as  Jesus  had  to  his  age,  as  being  the  feminine  mani- 
festation of  all  the  powers,  attributes,  and  characteris- 
tics of  Deity.  There  are  indications  that  this  delusion 
sometimes  leads  her  to  the  idea  that  she  is  a  somebody 
or  something  halfway  between  the  Virgin  Mary  and 
her  exalted  Son.  Mrs.  Eddy's  writings  on  "Science" 
make  it  clear  that  she  feels  that  her  place  is  to  fulfil 
the  incompleted  mission  of  our  Lord.  Ask  for  an  ex- 
planation of  these  positions  from  any  leader  of  the 
cult,  and  you  are  met  with  a  volley  of  quotations  from 
the  "Mother's"  books  and  sayings  indicative  of  the 
profound  respect  that  the  followers  of  this  prophet  of 
delusions  entertain  for  morality,  human  law,  religion, 
love,  compassion,  and  every  Christian  virtue. 

It  is  the  doctrines  that  are  subversive  of  all  the  good 
she  teaches  that  arouse  the  gravest  apprehension  on 
the  part  of  the  intelligent  Christian  investigator  who 
would  get  at  the  heart  of  Christian  Science  opinions 
and  beliefs.    Very  serious  is  the  danger  to  society  from 


The  Mask  of  Delusion  173 

the  attitude  of  a  woman  whose  followers  almost  deify 
her,  who  is  said  to  have  reached  a  state  where  she  is 
immune  from  all  poisons,  can  heal  the  sick,  raise  the 
dead,  cleanse  the  leper,  and  cast  out  devils.  Is  not 
the  woman  under  a  terrible  deception  who  makes  the 
assertions  that  she  repeatedly  makes  ?  When  brought 
to  bay  on  some  of  her  fantastic  utterances,  such  as 
her  actually  having  once  raised  the  dead,  she  hides 
behind  the  spiritual  interpretation  of  the  phrase,  de- 
claring, "I  mean  the  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins." 
Tear  off  the  mask.  It  is  only  a  delusion !  There  is  no 
other  conclusion  to  be  reached  by  the  sane.  Has  her 
ambition  made  wreck  of  her  imagination?  Has  she 
the  daring  of  irresponsible  and  conscienceless  in- 
sanity ? 

On  the  other  hand,  can  we  laugh  at  these  things 
as  the  offshoot  of  a  metaphysical  and  esoteric  philoso- 
phy that  in  no  way  can  have  a  lasting  influence  on  our 
ordinary  life? 

^  Mrs.  Eddy  claims  that  pain  is  simply  a  "mortal  be- 
lief," that  sin,  sickness,  and  death  "belong,  with  all 
that  is  material  and  temporal,  to  the  nothingness  of 
error,  which  imitate  the  creations  of  Deity."  What  a 
horrible  mockery  of  the  sublime  doctrines  of  the  Gos- 
pel and  the  tragedy  of  Calvary  does  Mrs.  Eddy  make 
in  her  so-called  revelation!  Was  it  not  of  such 
teachers  that  the  divine  Master  lifted  up  the  warning 
which  has  sounded  down  the  ages: 

"Take  heed  that  no  man  deceive  you.  For  many 
shall  come  in  my  name,  saying,  I  am  Christ ;  and  shall 
deceive  many.    For  there  shall  arise  false  Christs  and 


174  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

false  prophets,  and  shall  show  great  signs  and  won- 
ders, insomuch  that,  if  it  were  possible,  they  shall  de- 
ceive the  very  elect. " 

Under  the  mask  of  this  marvellous  phantasm  Mrs. 
Eddy  weaves  for  herself  a  Gethsemane  in  "Retrospec- 
tion and  Introspection" : 

"It  is  often  asked  why  Christian  Science  was  re- 
vealed to  me  ...  as  one  annihilating  the  false 
testimony  of  the  physical  senses  .  .  .  No  one  else 
can  drain  the  cup  which  I  have  drunk  to  the  dregs, 
as  the  discoverer  and  teacher  of  Christian  Science; 
neither  can  its  inspiration  be  gained  without  tasting 
the  cup  ...  No  mortal  could  have  first  informed 
the  human  mind  of  what  the  mortal  and  carnal  cannot 
discern." 

This  prophet  of  the  unreal  and  the  fantastic  in  both 
religion  and  philosophy  does  not  shrink  from  wearing 
the  mask  of  an  imaginative  sorrow  and,  if  not  in 
so  many  words  claiming  equality  with  Christ,  the 
anointed  One,  yet  using  such  language  as  to  imme- 
diately suggest  such  an  alternative. 

She  wears  the  mask  of  great  sanctity  on  the  de- 
lusions of  mortal  weakness,  sinfulness  and  vanity.  Ac- 
cording to  the  statements  of  those  who  have  known 
personally  her  life,  if  there  was  ever  a  woman  who  ex- 
hibited in  her  personality  and  character  great  human 
frailty,  it  is  she.  She  is  said  to  have  been  filled  with 
vanity  and  frivolity  in  her  youth,  fond  of  dress  and 
the  affectations  of  the  toilet,  with  a  raging  temper  and 
exceedingly  exacting,  demanding  great  self-sacrifices 
on  the  part  of  friends,  stooping  to  acts  of  littleness 


The  Mask  of  Delusion  175 

and  meanness,  and  not  above  using  falsehood  to  extri- 
cate herself  from  perilous  and  unworthy  positions. 
Flinging  from  her  friends  and  friendship  when  she 
had  used  both  to  further  her  personal  ends,  in  her 
writings  she  railed  against  friendship.  Is  this  a  charac- 
teristic that  ranks  with  the  Son  of  Man?  The  Christ 
of  God  was  gentle,  humble,  holy.  No  pen  of  man  has 
been  able  to  assail  the  white  purity  of  his  soul  and 
character.  But  who  that  knew  this  "prophet"  in  the 
days  of  her  obscurity  and  struggling  to  obtain  a  foot- 
hold on  the  doorsill  of  prosperity,  ever  thought  of 
her  as  a  saint  even?  Divinations,  witchcraft,  dissimu- 
lations were  her  daily  breath  until,  to  quote  her  own 
words,  "I  founded  a  church  of  my  ozvn" 

This  mask  of  delusion  puts  a  premium  on  ignorance. 

,  ..      ,  1  Fostering 

The  great  exponents  of  medical  science  and  surgery  IgnoranCe 
declare  that  one  of  the  most  important  things  in  the 
study  of  these  sciences  is  to  become  intelligently  ac- 
quainted with  the  anatomy  of  the  human  body.  No 
man  would  place  an  engineer  in  charge  of  a  locomo- 
tive who  was  ignorant  of  the  construction  of  the  loco-  , 
motive.  He  must  be  acquainted  with  all  the  parts  of 
an  engine  and  be  able  to  take  it  apart  and  put  it  to- 
gether again.  One  must  know  the  effects  of  different 
fuels  on  the  boiler,  the  action  of  fresh  water  and  salt 
upon  its  pierced  and  complicated  lungs.  "So,"  an  emi- 
nent surgeon  says,  "surgical  pathology  is  the  study  of 
the  processes  of  disease,  the  alteration  in  the  minute 
structure  of  tissues  and  organs,  without  which  no 
surgeon  can  be  fitted  for  his  task,  much  less  can  be 
called  an  accomplished  surgeon." 


176  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

But  what  is  the  idea  of  this  prophet  on  these  deli- 
cate and  far-reaching  matters?  She  holds  forth  the 
mask  of  ignorance  in  the  name  of  Deity  and  religion : 

"I  recommend  students  not  to  read  so-called  scien- 
tific works,  antagonistic  to  Christian  Science,  which 
advocate  materialistic  systems."  And  the  irony  of 
fate  for  this  mortal  world  is  revealed  in  the  fact  that 
thousands  of  men  and  women  with  a  measure  of  in- 
telligence believe  in  her,  and  led  by  the  torch  of  hope 
for  the  cure  of  bodily  ailments  and  the  happiness  of 
that  which  is  proclaimed  to  them  as  "nothing,"  buy  her 
book  at  $5.00  a  copy  and  are  glad  to  do  it.  Happy 
they  are  until  the  mask  is  stripped  from  the  face  of 
experience,  and  they  awake  without  God  and  without 
hope  in  all  the  world!  For  Mrs.  Eddy  has  taken 
away  God  and  given  her  followers  an  impersonal  prin- 
ciple in  its  stead.  Can  one  love  a  law,  or  a  force? 
Alas  for  him  who  when  the  mask  is  withdrawn  looks 
for  an  angel  face,  and,  aghast,  beholds  instead  the 
leer  of  a  phantom. 
Prevarication  If  need  arises,  Christian  Scientists  do  not  hesitate 
to  prevaricate  and  stultify  their  own  expressed  teach- 
ings. They  possibly  consider  these  teachings  of  their 
founder  as  mere  deception.  Carol  Norton  in  "Chris- 
tian Science  Queries  and  Answers,"  says : 

"Do  Christian  Scientists  believe  in  obeying  the 
health  laws  of  cities,  towns  and  villages,  in  reporting 
contagious  diseases,  in  submitting  to  vaccination,  if 
the  law  insists,  and  in  co-operating  with  all  who  stand 
for  good  government,  public  health,  sanitary  reform, 


The  Mask  of  Delusion  177 

:nd  a  definite  lessening  of  the  death  rate?  Answer: 
fes.M 

This  is  the  pose  of  a  dress  parade,  when  public 
►pinion  is  roused  and  criticism  is  rife.  The  whole 
enor  of  the  "Mother's"  teaching  is  just  the  other  way. 
Vhat  conclusion  must  we  arrive  at?  Either  they  do 
lot  believe  what  they  teach,  or  they  are  trying  to 
loodwink  public  opinion  in  the  interest  of  their  false 
nd  mistaken  cult  which  masquerades  under  the  name 
f  "Christian,"  but  is  at  heart  pagan  in  philosophy  and 
ulture;  and  of  "science/'  of  which  in  its  supreme  ig- 
orance  it  knows  not  even  the  shadow. 

When  Christian  Scientists  answer  the  above  ques- 
ion  regarding  "obeying  the  health  laws  of  cities"  in 
le  affirmative,  as  Carol  Norton  does,  they  do  it  in  the 
ace  of  evidence  which  refutes  the  testimony  com- 
letely.  Their  book,  "Science  and  Health,"  does  not 
sach  it,  and  their  practice  is  against  it.  But  why 
hould  they  be  consistent? 

Mrs.  Stetson  says  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  her  leader : 

"She  has  penetrated  the  mystery  of  existence,  has 
Dimd  a  solution  to  the  science  of  being,  and  within  the 
[oly  of  holies  has  received  the  inspired  message  of 
>ivine  Love,  and  given  it  to  a  waiting  world." 

What  does  this  hymn  mean?  Is  it  worship  to  Mrs. 
Iddy  by  her  adoring  followers?  To  whom  is  it  ad- 
ressed  ?  Take  off  the  mask.  Does  it  reveal  the  deifi- 
ation  of  a  human  being? 

Oh,  fill  us  with  meekness  to  sit  at  her  feet, 

Who  teaches  the  pathway  to  Love's  blest  retreat ; 


Deification? 


178  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

Who  leads  Israel's  army  in  paths  Jesus  trod, 

The  highway  of  holiness,  leading  to  God ; 

Hear  gratitude  voiceless  and  prayer  without  speech, 

Which  soar  like  the  dove  Heaven's  portals  to  reach." 

The  fact  is  that  every  one  is  subject  to  self-decep- 
tion. Christian  Scientists  are  not  exempt  from  this 
incident  of  human  experience.  They  have  often  per- 
suaded themselves  that  certain  results  were  brought 
about  mentally  when  other  causes  were  at  work  effect- 
ing the  end  so  much  desired.  They  delude  themselves 
into  imagining  that  actual  facts  bear  out  their  theories, 
when  in  reality  they  prove  just  the  opposite.  Mr.  Nor- 
ton once  testified  before  a  committee  of  the  New  York 
Legislature  that  a  severed  artery  could  be  reunited  by 
mental  treatment  alone.  When  asked  what  he  would 
do  when  a  person  cut  an  artery,  he  answered : 

"This  bleeding  to  death  only  exists  in  your  mind. 
If  I  cut  my  hand  I  would  put  a  piece  of  plaster  on  it 
to  prevent  the  dirt  from  getting  in,  and  then  would 
use  my  mind  to  stop  inflammation  or  poisoning." 

He  described  the  case  of  a  boy  who  had  been  under 
water  for  fifteen  minutes  and  was  laid  on  the  dock  ap- 
parently dead.  Mr.  Norton  gave  him  mental  treat- 
ment for  half  an  hour.  At  the  end  of  that  time  the. 
boy  came  to  life  and  began  to  throw  the  water  off  his 
stomach  without  the  use  of  any  rolling  or  other  manip- 
ulation usually  employed  in  such  accidents. 

What  assurance  has  any  observer  that  it  was  the 
Norton  mind  that  recovered  the  boy  ?  Nature  without 
metaphysics  may  have  been  the  instrument. 


The  Mask  of  Delusion  179 

This  man  testified  that  he  had  cured  cows,  and  could 
treat  dogs,  horses  and  plants  successfully. 

One  of  his  ilk  declared  that  she  had  caused  a  rub- 
ber plant  that  was  drooping  and  likely  to  die  to  be  re- 
vived by  her  mental  processes.  It  was  in  this  way: 
In  a  case  before  a  New  York  surrogate  a  lady  gave 
testimony  that  a  plant  in  the  house  was  observed  to  be 
drooping.  A  few  days  afterward  it  was  remarked  by 
a  member  of  the  family  that  the  plant  looked  much 
better  and  seemed  to  have  revived. 

"Yes,"  said  a  Christian  Scientist  living  in  the  house, 
"I  have  been  treating  it  by  Christian  Science." 

The  witness  hesitated,  while  a  suppressed  smile 
broke  out.  On  being  asked  its  meaning  she  replied: 
"Oh,  nothing,"  with  a  shy  glance  at  the  court,  "only 
I  had  been  watering  it  more  regularly." 

Is  not  the  whole  subject  of  absent  treatment  men- 
tally administered  a  delusion  and  a  snare?  We  have 
seen  that  patients  have  been  called  up  to  the  mind, 
on  the  presentation  of  a  lock  of  hair  to  the  Mind 
Healer,  and  supposed  cures  undertaken.  The  fact 
was  that  the  lock  of  hair  belonged  to  the  dead.  If  a 
practitioner  is  not  able  to  distinguish  between  the  liv- 
ing and  the  dead  in  giving  absent  treatment,  how  can 
he  ever  be  sure  that  his  mind  is  focused  on  any  partic- 
ular individual?  How  then  may  any  given  cure  un- 
der such  circumstances  ever  be  effected?  Is  not  the 
whole  theory  absurd,  and  simply  the  shadowy  creation 
of  the  imagination? 

There  is  a  side  of  this  whole  question  fraught  with 
graver  danger.    While  we  may  not  expect  the  pure- 


A   Grave 

Danger 


1 80  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

minded  and  noble  members  of  this  sect  to  be  cor- 
rupted by  its  metaphysical  delusions  and  contradic- 
tions, how  about  the  weak  and  the  criminal  of  hu- 
manity? if  evil,  crime,  and  sin  are  all  illusions  and 
dreams,  great  classes  of  men  and  women  may  come  to 
say:  "All  is  God,  all  is  Good.  It  matters  not  what 
we  mortals  do.  Evil  is  not  real,  but  only  a  bad 
dream.''  Then  right  will  be  confounded  with  wrong. 
Law  will  have  no  force  of  authority.  Then  the  dream 
of  license,  pleasure  and  sensuality — for  there  is  no 
evil — will  entangle  the  feet  of  the  race  in  lurid  and 
fantastic  mazes.  When  these  doctrines  are  carried  to 
their  legitimate  consequences  what  becomes  of  govern- 
ment, personal  rights,  and  all  social  order? 


CHAPTER  XII. 
THE  MASK  WITHDRAWN. 

What  must  be  the  practical  outcome  of  a  religion  of  The  Awaking 
dreams  that  puts  the  mask  of  delusion  over  the  face 
of  reality?  After  the  mask  is  withdrawn,  the  false- 
hood and  wickedness  engendered  by  a  wrong  philoso- 
phy and  by  denying  the  facts  of  experience  are  re- 
vealed in  the  shock  of  reality.  What  bitterness, 
hatred,  and  despair  overwhelm  the  deluded  soul !  Faith 
in  Christ  as  a  personal  Redeemer  has  been  wrecked, 
for  this  teaching  demands  that  one  empty  himself  of 
his  Evangelical  faith  and  cease  to  think  of  God  as  his 
personal  Father.  Said  one  who  had  had  experience 
with  this  subtle  cult  and  its  author,  "She  demanded  of 
me  that  I  give  up  my  belief  in  a  personal  God."  An- 
other testified,  "My  faith  in  a  personal  God  received 
a  severe  strain,  but  I  never  lost  it  altogether."  This 
"Science"  tears  away  the  very  foundations  of  truth 
and  accustoms  man  to  the  constant  repetition  of  a 
falsehood  until  it  appears  the  truth. 

The  condition  of  such  souls  finds  portrayal  by  the 
inspired  pen,  "How  are  they  brought  into  desolation, 
as  in  a  moment  they  are  utterly  consumed  with  ter- 
rors. As  a  dream  when  one  awaketh,"  they  despise 
the  image  that  has  held  their  sleeping  moments.  In 
dealing  with  these  opinions,  we  have  to  do  with  Mind 

181 


1 82  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

Cure,  and  a  very  old  superstition  woven  as  a  continu- 
ous thread  through  a  patchwork  of  Christian  truths. 
Its  methods  are  those  of  subterfuge.  The  potato  cure 
for  rheumatism,  the  bone  cure  for  toothache,  can  point 
triumphantly  to  multitudes  of  cures.  A  certain  patent 
medicine  that  was  advertised  as  having  cured  long 
lists  of  people  who  had  taken  it  in  dozen  lots  was 
proved  to  be  nothing  but  bad  whisky  and  molasses. 
The  venders  of  many  patent  medicines  can  show  a 
far  greater  number  of  cures  effected  than  can  Chris- 
tian Science.  Under  the  head  of  "Fruitage"  the  book 
"Science  and  Health"  enumerates  its  own  victories  in 
the  same  way.  All  the  quacks  and  charlatans,  hum- 
bugs and  deceivers  of  humanity  can  do  the  same  thing. 
Successful  physicians  can  boast  of  their  cures.  More 
than  all  great  Doctor  Nature  can  show  a  larger  ma- 
jority than  all  other  systems  and  schools  combined. 

But  subterfuge  cannot  last  always.  It  is  bound  to 
get  to  the  end  of  its  tether.  To  tell  a  man  with  a 
jumping  toothache  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  pain, 
that  it  is  all  in  his  mind,  and  that  he  must  attain  a 
serene  and  undisturbed  composure  of  the  imagination 
and  all  will  be  well,  does  not  produce  in  him  a 
sound  tooth  or  a  healthy  nerve.  But  if  you  keep 
up  the  urging  long  enough  the  nerve  may  die  or  the 
man  expire. 
Christ's  Jesus  called  things  by  their  right  names.     Never 

Teaching  once  did  he  drop  a  hint  that  he  was  not  what  he 
seemed  to  be.  While  he  taught  the  deepest  truths  in 
the  guise  of  parables,  his  meaning  was  always  easily 
ascertained.    Never  once  did  he  hint  that  his  life  was 


The  Mask  Withdrawn  183 

not  a  real  life,  that  his  struggles  and  passions  were  not 
real  experiences.  The  earthly  life  was  positive,  not 
imaginary,  to  him,  and  so  also  was  the  spiritual.  His 
noblest  followers,  those  who  have  done  the  most  to 
uplift  and  benefit  the  race,  have  walked  in  his  foot- 
steps. They  have  called  the  good  good,  and  the  bad 
bad,  and  have  courageously  faced  the  realities  of  two 
worlds.  The  material  and  the  spiritual  kingdoms 
have  been  acknowledged  by  them  and  the  personal 
God,  manifested  by  the  personal  Christ,  has  been  the 
soul's  refuge  "when  the  blast  of  the  terrible  ones  has 
been  as  a  storm  against  the  wall."  To  merge  the 
vision  of  the  personal  God  into  the  image  of  an  im- 
personal force,  principle,  or  tendency,  even  though 
you  clothe  it  with  an  attribute  that  makes  for  right- 
eousness, has  been  to  take  the  nerve  out  of  spirituality 
and  devitalize  the  motive  for  high  thinking  and  pure 
living.  The  higher  one  climbs  the  slippery  side  of  a 
precipice,  the  more  terrible  the  fall  into  the  depths. 
The  more  exalted  our  hopes,  the  more  frightful  the 
awakening  when  these  are  proven  a  delusion  and  a 
snare. 

Put  yourself,  reader,  in  the  place  of  an  enthusiast 
under  the  spell  of  the  mask  of  Christian  Science.  *****  the 
Think  of  the  fascinations  that  its  optimistic  and 
luminous  countenance  holds  out  to  its  devotee.  He 
says :  "This  carnal  existence  is  only  a  dream,  the  mind 
is  all.  Nothing  is  as  it  is  except  as  thinking  makes  it 
so.  I  cannot  sin;  I  cannot  be  sick.  If  I  only  rise 
high  enough  to  learn  the  mastery  of  mind  over  the 
material,  I  may  not  die.      'Mother'  has  almost,  if  not 


1 84  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

quite,  reached  it ;  if  she  drink  any  deadly  thing,  it  shall 
not  hurt  her  any  more."  Through  storm  and  stress 
and  struggle  he  carries  these  deceptive  hopes.  They 
really  float  him  over  floods  of  difficulties  and  impedi- 
ments toward  his  lofty  dreams.  Days  of  prosperity 
and  blessing  rain  down  upon  him  from  a  translucent 
azure  sky.  But  without  warning,  as  in  the  case  of  Job, 
servant  of  the  living  God,  a  cyclone  of  suffering  and 
sorrow  sweeps  over  him.  Disease  tortures.  He  en- 
dures the  torment  in  dumb  silence.  But  there  is  a 
limit  to  human  endurance.  The  bow  of  hope  is  shiv- 
ered. The  mirage  that  has  lured  him  on  vanishes. 
He  comes  to  himself  in  the  desert  of  despair.  Stern 
reality  looks  him  in  the  face  and  ghastly  death  waits 
to  cut  him  down.  How  terrible  when  the  mask  is 
withdrawn  to  awake  from  such  a  dream ! 

Years  ago  a  child  was  born  into  a  well-to-do  family 
Dream  in  0ne  of  the  fair  cities  of  our  land.     Her  childhood 

was  passed  in  cultivated  and  refined  circles.  Chris- 
tian influences  wove  their  spell  into  the  formation  of 
habit  and  character.  Wealth  multiplied  in  that  home. 
Its  master  idolized  his  children,  and  no  earthly  ad- 
vantage was  too  good  for  him  to  give  them  whenever 
and  wherever  it  lay  in  his  power.  The  little  maid  was 
very  winsome.  As  she  neared  womanhood  all  that  art, 
culture,  and  intellectual  training  could  do  was  at  her 
command.  In  her  young  maidenhood,  guided  by  a  de- 
voted and  faithful  minister  of  the  Word,  she  espoused 
the  truths  of  our  holy  religion  and  made  profession 
of  her  faith  in  the  living  personal  Christ  as  her  Re- 
deemer.    Of  a  meditative,  somewhat  mystic  turn  of 


A   Shattered 


The  Mask  Withdrawn  185 

mind,  the  Church  and  its  forms  of  worship  held  a  deep 
place  in  her  spiritual  life.  The  training  of  school  days 
over,  she  was  enriched  by  foreign  travel,  and  the  treas- 
ures and  lore  of  the  Old  World,  art  and  history  and 
learning,  laid  their  gifts  at  her  feet.  Quick  to  take 
advantage  of  her  opportunities,  and  assimilating  a 
world  culture,  she  returned  to  the  city  of  her  birth  in 
the  flush  of  her  young  life.  As  some  rare  jewel  shines 
out  from  a  setting  of  exquisite  beauty,  her  soul  looked 
out  from  its  setting  of  attractive  personal  loveliness. 
With  that  homecoming  the  circle  of  which  she  was  a 
part  recognized  that  in  her  grace  and  beauty  of  mind 
and  character  a  new  star  had  risen  on  their  social 
world.  With  the  many  magnets  that  drew  her  amid 
the  attractions  of  a  peculiarly  bright  and  happy  exist- 
ence, her  spiritual  radiance  continued  to  shine  with 
mild  effusive  rays. 

A  young  professional  man  of  ability  and  force  with 
alluring  prospects  in  the  field  of  politics  and  society, 
as  well  as  in  his  chosen  calling,  wooed  and  won  her. 
Great  was  the  rejoicing  at  the  nuptials  of  two  young- 
people  so  well  suited  to  walk  hand  in  hand  down  the 
journey  of  time,  scattering  benefactions  on  their  way. 
A  child  came  to  gladden  loving  hearts,  and  awaken 
the  deep  realities  of  the  maternal  nature.  Soon  there- 
after, the  wife  became  an  heiress.  A  few  years  glided 
swiftly  and  sweetly  along.  On  a  visit  to  Boston  the 
young  woman  became  acquainted  with  Mrs.  Mary 
Baker  Glover  Eddy.  Because  she  was  opulent  and 
could  command  time  and  money,  she  was  an  ever- 
welcome  guest  of  the  "Mother,"  who  in  the  midst  of 


1 86  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

making  and  selling  her  book  and  guiding  the  des- 
tinies of  the  new  denomination  could  ever  make  her- 
self most  fascinating  to  those  over  whom  she  deemed 
it  worth  her  while  to  weave  the  spell  of  her  subtle  per- 
sonal attractions. 

A  little  son  born  to  the  household  met  with  an  acci- 
dent. It  resulted  in  curvature  of  the  spine.  Physi- 
cians counseled  that  proper  treatment  would  restore 
him  to  health  and  strength.  Her  husband  and  friends 
urged  the  young  mother  to  adopt  the  necessary  meas- 
ures for  his  recovery.  Skilled  physicians  were  at  last 
employed  to  treat  the  lad.  All  things  seemed  to  be 
going  well,  and  human  knowledge  saw  no  reason  why 
an  ultimate  restoration  to  complete  physical  health 
might  not  be  hoped  for.  But  that  plaster  cast,  ever 
before  the  mother's  eye,  seemed  a  standing  menace  to 
her  new-found  faith  and  friendship.  She  looked  upon 
it  as  a  mark  of  weakness.  Why  had  she  yielded? 
Christian  Science  associates,  now  her  bosom  com- 
panions, true  to  their  convictions,  upbraided  her  for 
going  back  to  material  methods  instead  of  clinging  to 
mental  treatment.  She  had  the  cast  torn  off  and  told 
the  boy  he  was  perfectly  well.  Poor  child !  Christian 
Science  treatment,  present  or  absent,  left  him  crip- 
pled. The  healers  evidently  did  not  understand  suffi- 
ciently the  art  of  mental  healing  to  bring  to  him  the 
powers  of  restoration.  Dwarfed,  he  moved  in  the 
world  as  manhood  gathered  its  years  around  him,  an 
object  of  commiseration  to  others  and  in  spite  of  intel- 
lectual ability  with  a  fierce  burning  rage  within  his 


The  Mask  Withdrawn  187 

heart  that  he  should  have  been  compelled  to  be  a  vic- 
tim on  the  altars  of  this  monstrous  delusion. 

Oh,  falsehood,  wearing  on  thy  face  the  smile  of  an 
angel  of  Light,  yet  hiding  the  lurid  mockery  of  an 
endless  sorrow,  unconsciously,  it  may  be,  for  thine 
innocent  devotees,  thou  art  neither  Christian  nor 
science,  and  hast  played  fast  and  loose  with  sacred 
things  and  vaunted  thyself  as  enthroned  with  the 
Highest.  A  great  company  of  children,  innocent  and 
helpless,  cry  out  against  thee. 

The  child's  mother  herself  was  attacked  with  in- 
sidious disease.  She  flew  to  the  prophet  of  her  cult 
for  refuge.  She  had  lost  her  hope  in  a  personal  God 
and  in  the  efficacy  of  prayer.  The  God  who  knows 
naught  of  sin,  sickness,  or  death  could  not  help  her. 
Mrs.  Eddy  and  her  ilk  in  the  security  of  their  mystic 
dreams  and  fond  idealism  told  her  over  and  over  again 
that  there  was  nothing  the  matter  with  her.  She  said 
confidently  to  herself  and  others  the  formulas  of  her 
new-found  faith,  "I  am  perfectly  well.  I  have  no  pain. 
I  am  not  sick."  She  read  and  studied  the  book  that 
was  to  heal  her,  but  all  in  vain.  The  earthly  help  that 
might  at  least  have  stayed  for  a  while  the  plague,  she 
would  none  of.  No  pleading,  no  reasoning,  no  state- 
ment of  facts  would  move  her.  Infatuated  with  Chris- 
tian Science  and  its  aspirationalists,  she  turned  a  deaf 
ear  to  every  other  counsel.  The  body  grew  weaker. 
We  saw  her  fade  away  day  by  day.  But  never  once 
did  she  acknowledge,  even  to  herself,  that  she  was  not 
in  good  health.    Even  when  she  had  to  take  her  bed, 


1 88  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

this  strange  subtle  hope,  working  with  the  peculiarities 
of  her  disease,  sustained  her. 

It  wrought  with  buoyancy  within  her.  Restlessness 
made  her  a  bird  of  passage.  She  flitted  between  her 
home  and  Boston.  Now  the  fever  burned  within  her, 
and  it  rushed  her  into  activities  and  social  frivolities 
foreign  to  her  nature.  Incessantly  she  perused  the 
pages  of  "Science  and  Health."  Her  answer  to  those 
who  asked  how  she  fared  invariably  was :  "I  am  well, 
only  a  little  tired."  The  hypnotic  influence  of  the 
Christian  Science  practitioners  sustained  her  courage. 
It  is  said  that  there  is  a  devil  in  all  religions.  It  may 
be  that  Mrs.  Eddy's  devil,  "malicious  animal  magnet- 
ism," to  whom  she  lays  all  the  woes  of  her  much- 
troubled  religion  and  all  opposition  met  with  by  meta- 
physical healing  in  the  hands  of  her  followers,  egged 
on  the  poor  victim  of  this  grievous  malady.  However, 
the  book  was  her  constant  companion.  She  was  sure 
in  those  days  that  she  should  get  strong  and  that  the 
boy's  crooked  spine  would  be  straightened.  Her  faith 
in  these  mystic  principles  was  unbounded.  Yet  she 
welcomed  her  friends.  She  was  no  recluse,  and  many 
a  quiet  conversation  was  carried  on  between  her  and 
the  religious  guides  of  her  youth  and  early  woman- 
hood. 

She  went  to  the  South  and  she  visited  the  North. 
There  was  a  strange  fascination  in  that  wonderful 
New  England  woman,  indomitable  in  the  pursuit  of 
her  occult  dreams  of  the  vague  and  misty  East.  In 
her  presence  the  sick  one  was  persuaded  that  she  was 
well.     But  home  again,  day  by  day  the  hollow  cheek, 


The  Mask  Withdrawn  189 

the  gleaming,  glas.  y  eye,  the  hectic  flush,  the  hacking 
cough,  all  proclaimed  the  rapidly  approaching  end.  In 
all  these  long  days  she  flatly  refused  to  see  a  physi- 
cian, or  take  a  single  remedy  such  as  experience  has 
proved  valuable  in  mitigating  a  consumptive's  lot.  At 
last,  so  feeble  was  she  that  they  took  her,  in  spite  of 
her  earnest  protest  that  she  was  well,  to  a  sanitarium. 
It  could  only  be  done  by  yielding  to  her  desire  for 
daily  visits  from  the  healer.  But  all  was  in  vain.  It 
was  too  late.  She  grew  worse  and  worse.  Her  days 
were  now  destined  to  be  few. 

Insistently  the  healer  came  day  by  day,  for  a  price, 
of  course.  When  he  was  with  her  she  seemed  to  be 
possessed  by  that  something— devil  or  saint— that 
passes  from  some  strong  minds  to  other  weaker  ones. 
Hope  scattered  its  flowers  in  her  heart,  and  its  per- 
fume fell  on  her  nostrils.  The  healer  gone,  it  became 
evident  that  he  did  not  heal.  She  sank  down  into 
lethargy  and  despondency.  Suddenly  one  evening — it 
seemed  as  if  it  occurred  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye — it 
flashed  on  her,  "I  am  dying!"  A  terror  seemed  to 
seize  her.  She  demanded  that  the  healer  be  sent  for. 
To  her  he  was  a  person  of  mysterious  mental  powers, 
holding  the  keys  of  life  and  death.  She  put  the  ques- 
tion with  startling  energy,  "Am  I  getting  better? 
Shall  I  get  well  ?"  This  person  was  a  man.  He  did 
not  seem  a  fool.  Was  he  hypnotized?  Was  he 
self-deceived  ?  Was  he  a  deliberate  liar  ?  He  told  her 
with  calm  deliberation  and  forethought  that  of  course 
she  was  getting  better;  she  was  not  sick  and  would 
soon   arise   from   her   bed;   disease   would   yield   to 


i  go  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

health.  And  with  many  like  words  spoke  he  sooth- 
ingly to  her.  With  these  technical  phrases  she  was 
familiar.     She  had  heard  them  so  long. 

But  she  replied,  for  the  first  time  apparently,  in 
some  sort  of  doubt,  "I  am  so  weak.  Oh,  I  am  so 
tired."  The  man  lingered  for  a  long  time,  gazing  in- 
tently at  the  woman,  and  administering  mental  treat- 
ment, and  under  the  charm  of  it  the  dying  woman  felt 
encouraged.  But  it  was  only  a  temporary  buoyancy. 
The  healer  away,  giving  absent  treatment  all  the 
time  (?),  the  old  fear,  terror,  and  doubt  came  back 
with  redoubled  force. 

Her  gentle  mother  and  loving  sister  ministered  to 
her.  Yet  she  would  not  be  comforted.  She  demanded 
to  see  the  physician  of  the  house,  an  old  family  friend. 
Fixing  her  eyes  on  him  and  clutching  his  hand,  she 
demanded  of  the  old  man,  "Doctor,  am  I  dying?"  He 
was  a  good  man  and  noble.  All  his  life  he  had  walked 
with  the  Master,  to  learn  his  secret  and  to  know  his 
mind.  Bending  over  her,  he  said  soothingly,  "My 
child,  you  are  a  Christian.  Summon  your  Christian 
faith  and  courage."  "Oh,  doctor,"  she  cried,  "but  I 
have  given  up  my  Christian  faith;  I'm  in  'Science' 

now." 

Calmly,  gently,  tenderly  he  told  her  the  truth.  Her 
idol  was  broken,  her  expectation  shattered.  The  bit- 
terness of  despair  held  her  in  its  viselike  grip.  She 
knew  now  that  she  was  doomed  to  die.  "I  am  lost! 
I  am  lost!"  she  cried.  She  sank  into  quiet  and  self- 
communing.  What  struggles  went  on  in  the  secret 
of  her  soul  were  never  revealed.    The  mask  fell  from 


The  Mask  Withdrawn  i9I 

the  face  of  experience.     Illusion  vanished.     She  saw 
things  as  they  really  are. 

Some  days  after  her  pastor  knelt  by  her  bedside.  He 
spoke  to  her  of  the  Great  Physician,  the  Light  of  the 
world.  As  he  pointed  her  to  the  Lamb  of  God  that 
taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world,  she  answered,  "Jesus 
knows  best.  I  trust  myself  to  Him  in  life  and 'death." 
Then  from  the  fresh  agony  of  a  heart  newly  awak- 
ened to  a  mother's  tender  love,  sprang  the  yearning 
cry,  "But,  oh,  my  poor  little  boy !" 

Because  in  the  days  of  her  Christian  Science  de- 
lusion she  had  so  vehemently  opposed  a  reasonable 
course  in  her  husband's  estimation,  there  had  grown 
a  coolness  between  the  two.  Now  she  sent  for  him 
"Husband !"  she  cried ;  "it's  all  a  mistake.  It's  all  a 
mistake  !"  The  mask  was  withdrawn.  The  dream  was 
over.  Out  of  the  land  of  shadows  she  passed  to  the 
great  Reality.  There  no  deceptions  are  born  and 
practiced.  There  in  that  cloudless  day  shall  we  see 
eye  to  eye  and  soul  to  soul. 

This  strange  cult  has  surely  humbled  the  pride  of 
the  intellectual  supremacy  of  the  twentieth  century  The  WorId' 
Its  bald  and  empty  vagaries  are  drawing  thousands  to  *** 
the  precipice  that  hangs  over  the  gulf  of  despair. 
What  a  commentary  on  the  need  of  humanity,  capti- 
vated in  heart  and  bewildered  in  intellect,  lost  in  tres- 
passes and  sins,  for  a  divine  Saviour  who  is  able  to 
save  from  all  sin! 

There  is  only  one  way  in  which  we  may  be  saved 
Yet  in  all  the  centuries  men  have  been  prone  to  dream 
of  some  other  way.    This  Christian  Science  is  a  vague 


1 92  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science 

dream  of  reaching  the  impossible.    It  ignores  the  plain 

facts  of  nature,  the  testimony  of  the  senses,  the  dic- 

«Some  other   tates  of  reason,  the  voice  of  God  in  revelation,  and 

"Way" 

tries  to  climb  up  some  other  way  than  God's  appointed 
path  of  life.  As  those  who  are  starving  dream  of  a 
banquet  of  richest  viands  and  the  delights  of  gratified 
appetite,  and  awake  to  emptiness,  delirium,  and  death, 
so  these  deluded  people,  after  the  godlike  dream  of 
victory  over  the  forces  of  nature,  awake  to  find  their 
castles  in  the  air  toppled  into  dust,  and  their  souls  the 
prey  of  the  devils  of  disappointment  and  despair.  No 
wonder  that  the  soul  cries  out  in  sheer  weariness  and 
bitterness,  "It  is  all  a  mistake !    It  is  all  a  mistake !" 

More  serious  than  the  loss  of  bodily  life  is  the  loss 
of  the  soul.  If  there  be  no  sin,  there  can  be  no  Saviour 
from  sin.  Our  friends  under  the  spell  of  this  delusion 
claim  the  name  of  Christian.  But  they  contradict  the 
apostle  who  writes :  "If  we  say  we  have  no  sin  we 
deceive  ourselves,  and  the  truth  is  not  in  us,"  and  they 
make  the  Redeemer  talk  nonsense  when  he  says,  "I 
will  forewarn  you  whom  ye  shall  fear :  fear  Him 
which  after  He  hath  killed  hath  power  to  cast  into 
hell.    Yea,  I  say  unto  you,  Fear  Him." 


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BP955.M37 

The  mask  of  Christian  science;  a  history 

Princeton  Theological  Semmary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  00010  514r 


